Chapter 69: Gartz hunt (Hunting Gartz)

Joonbum and Sungjae turned towards the voice and lo behold, Jinpok was glaring viciously at them with a camera in his hand. Seohee Ahn, who Joonbum ran away from before, was standing beside him.

“Hah…”

‘What a day.’

Joonbum could not understand why he kept running into these people. It was as if he was cursed to meet them whenever the chance arose.

‘I hope I don’t have to see them when I’m like sixty years old.’

He felt a chill running through his bones as he imagined it. Meanwhile, Jinpok and Seohee were still taunting Joonbum.

“Hey! Did you hear me? Huh?”

Joonbum slowly rose from his seat and faced Jinpok. Jinpok, who was about to confront Joonbum, flinched and stopped on the spot. He seemed hesitant as Joonbum quietly watched him.

“Are you ignoring people because you’re so famous now? How did it feel to leave me behind like that? Was it so satisfying for you to run away after using us? Running away from girls… How pathetic.”

Seohee, who was obviously not scared by Joonbum, kept taunting him with half-lies. Joonbum glanced at her and spoke coldly.

“Shut up, you disgust me. Sungjae, we should go.”

Joonbum moved to pay for the food and walked out of the restaurant with Sungjae. Seohee, who was frozen in shock, came back to her senses as her face turned beet red with anger and humiliation.

“HEY! What the hell are you doing? Follow that moron and do something! Did you not see what he did to me?”

“Huh? UHG! That asshole!”

Jinpok followed after Joonbum and ran toward him out on the road.

“YOU ASSHOLE! Stop right there!”

Sungjae turned around at the shout and stopped him. Jinpok then began viciously taunting Joonbum while trying to push away Sungjae.

“You trying to run away again? Huh? You b**ch!”

“You should stop.”

“Who the f*** are you to order me around? Get off me!”

“Ugh!”

“S-Sungjae!”

Jinpok aggressively pushed Sungjae away and he fell to the ground.

“YOU…!”

Joonbum turned around and threw a jab at Jinpok’s chin.

“Come you little- ugh.”

Jinpok, who tried closing in on Joonbum, fell on his butt. He tried to get up, but it seemed as if his body had lost all energy. He kept trying to stand up, but he couldn’t.

“What are you doing? What’s going on?”

Seohee tried to help him get up, but it was no use.

“What did you do? Damn! That’s awesome!”

Sungjae got up and shouted excitedly at the sight of Jinpok being floored. Sungjae’s eyes met Jinpok’s, and he was barely able to get up. He was clearly shaken from what just happened.

“Yo- yoo bb-bas tard jus himme? Dijya himme?”

It seemed like his chin did not move as he intended, which resulted in him stuttering weirdly. Sungjae turned away, covering his mouth to stop from laughing out loud. Joonbum felt his anger dissipating at such a sad comical sight, but it made Jinpok angrier.

“Yo-you!”

“What, you want more of that? Get lost.”

Joonbum straightened himself up and glared at him. Jinpok seemed to back off for a second but came back strongly at him.

“H-hah! Hit me then! Hit me if you dare! Let me get some settlement money. Seohee! Make sure you get this on camera!”

Jinpok regained control of his chin and yelled at Seohee before charging at Joonbum. Joonbum calmly threw multiple punches at his opponent and Jinpok backed away, moaning in pain. Sungjae grabbed Joonbum’s arms in shock.

“HEY! What are you doing? This won’t end well for you, man! Are you crazy?”

“No, I’m sane.”

Joonbum shook his head and pulled Sungjae off his arms. Sungjae was surprised at how strong Joonbum was from that move.

“I’m sick and tired of this. I’ll see it to the end today.”

“You!!!”

Jinpok jumped at him, swinging his fists wildly. Joonbum easily dodged all of Jinpok’s attacks and punched straight into Jinpok’s eyes. His head flung backward and he staggered back a few steps. But then he charged again.

“DIE! YOU MOTHERF***KER!”

Joonbum dodged it again as if he expected it and slammed his fist into the side of Jinpok’s body.

“Ugh! You!”

It was then a rinse and repeat of the same thing. Jinpok kept charging at him without landing any successful hits while Joonbum calmly punched away at various parts of Jinpok’s body. He was bleeding from both his nostrils and his face was badly swollen, but he still did not stop.

Sungjae also did not stop Joonbum. He felt the harsh coldness around Joonbum and could not intervene.

Jinpok was no longer able to talk and he couldn’t even see well because of his swollen eyes, which resulted in more wild but empty punches. However, he did not quit. Joonbum was not much different either. He kept punching away with a force that would keep Jinpok from losing consciousness. Joonbum also did not quit.

Jinpok was on the ground with a bloodied face. He breathed heavily as Joonbum, who was not even short of breath, looked down at him.

“Are you done already? Is that all you’ve got?”

Joonbum’s tone was very cold and Jinpok shivered after hearing it.

‘It’s over.’

Sungjae thought as he glanced between the two. They both looked mad.

Joonbum glanced around; there was no one on the road. Seohee, who was raging earlier, was nowhere to be found.

‘I knew it.’

It was obvious that she would not even call the police in fear of jeopardizing herself. Joonbum felt sudden sympathy toward Jinpok. He took out a cigarette and offered it to Jinpok. His eyebrows flinched.

“Se-settlement…”

Joonbum slowly motioned his right hand like a punch, which made Jinpok flinch and take the cigarette. Joonbum then rose and took one more for himself.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“I’m sorry.”

Joonbum apologized to Sungjae as he made a call on his cell phone.

“Hello, yes. It’s me. I have a problem.”

*

Soon, Taesoo appeared with a few large men. Joonbum left the area without a second glance.

“W-who are you? Wh-why are you- No. No-no! I have to go to the hospital-”

“Hey, it’s okay. We are going to the hospital. You can come with us, okay?”

Jinpok glanced at Joonbum, but Joonbum was looking the other way. Sungjae saw Jinpok being dragged away by those men and approached Joonbum.

“Hey… are those men…”

A phone call stopped Joonbum from answering.

“Is it your mom?”

“No. Can you wait a bit?”

*

“Hello?”

The voice of a middle-aged man came through the phone.

“Long time no see.”

Joonbum could not think of anything. The voice came so unexpectedly that he was not prepared on how to react.

“…Why did you call?” Joonbum asked coldly.

“Can we meet up, like maybe tomorrow?”

“Meet you? For what?”

There was silence for a moment.

“I just want to see my son as a fath-”

“Son- you said?”

There was silence again as Joonbum interrupted with a cold voice.

“You should’ve said that ten years ago. You have no more chances. Also, stop calling Mom. We don’t care if you are having a hard time or not. Don’t call us anymore.”

“How-how dare you…”

“Stop begging for money from us and go find a job. Let your wife find a job too. I know Mom did it after you left, so why can’t you guys do it? Weren’t you guys supposed to be a happy loving couple? I guess happy couples like you can do much better. And I don’t know where you found my number but don’t ever call us again.”

Joonbum hung up after letting out his icy words and turned off his phone. He let out a sigh, but he felt his hands shaking.

‘Bastard, it was you who abandoned us first.’

Joonbum knew that he had called his mom from a few months ago to ask for money. His mom told him that his father begged to borrow some money or co-sign his loans. Joonbum felt good about what he just did.

‘He’s now targeting me.’

It was obvious that he changed his focus to Joonbum as it was him who had the money.

‘I guess I can push him away now.’

When Joonbum came back, Sungjae was waiting for him.

“Who was that? You don’t look well.”

“Uh, it’s…”

Sungjae spoke up as Joonbum stopped, hesitant of how to explain it.

“Ugh, the weather’s too cold. I’ll treat for drinks! Let’s go!”

They hopped on a taxi and Sungjae did not ask anything while they were traveling. They arrived at a street cart bar after twenty minutes or so. They were served with eel, fish cake soup, and soju.

“It’s amazing that everyone used to eat and drink like this.”

Sungjae poured soju and Joonbum drank it wordlessly. They kept drinking through the night.

“So it was about that!”

“What?”

Joonbum eyed Sungjae at that exclamation. Sungjae smiled at Joonbum’s reaction.

“Hah, you think I wouldn’t know? You always act like this when you hear anything related to him. What happened?”

Joonbum emptied his glass again.

“That bastard asked my mother to give him some money. Mom said she doesn’t have any, but he went on about me becoming popular and asked her to prepare the money. He then asked her to co-sign for his own loan. What an unbelievable guy.”

He did not want to speak, but the words just naturally came out of his mouth. Sungjae refilled his glass of soju.

“That’s something.”

“Yes.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I already ignored him. I told him never to call back.”

“You sure that’s okay? You might become sorry. Unlike the past, you earn enough to be of actual help. It might be a good idea to help out.

Joonbum quietly drank another cup and opened up.

“But I don’t want to help him. I don’t want to see him anymore.”

Sungjae watched him for a moment and smiled.

“Haha, you sure did change a LOT.”