20 – Haerin Kang (20)
Haerin Kang (20)
Going crazy.
He tried hard to hold back the sighs that kept coming out of his mouth, but it didn’t seem to work out.
As soon as the lecture was over, Hwang Ji-young and Kim Yoon-ah asked.
“Senior, what are you worried about? sigh like that…”
“that’s right. Everyone was looking. The professor couldn’t bear to ask and kept glancing…”
“……”
I didn’t have any ill intentions towards the two, but I couldn’t afford to smile at them, so I just looked around and quickly left the classroom.
“senior.”
It was Park Se-young who held my arm.
“Senior, wait a minute, talk. are you okay?”
“… I’m sorry, but now I…”
“Yoo-ram unnie is also waiting. You know you haven’t spoken to us for days now, right? Is it because of your girlfriend? Yes? Let’s talk for a minute. yes?”
When I saw that there was no smile on that smiley face, I couldn’t refuse even that.
After all, Kang Hae-rin’s disappearance was something that could happen someday, even if it wasn’t for them.
Regardless of the order, it was I who wrote the novel with Kang Hae-rin’s crime file, and it was I who made her the protagonist of dozens of murder cases.
Now that her existence has become a reality, I should have expected to read the novel I wrote someday.
I didn’t expect it to come this soon.
After midnight two days ago, Kang Hae-rin’s phone was turned off, and even the harshest descriptions continued on her laptop.
At first, only part of the sentence was strangely deformed, like a computer with an error, but later the entire sentence was changed to an unrecognizable form.
[…]
Later, the laptop itself stopped working.
Not being able to see what Kang Hae-rin was doing on her laptop meant that she could have committed murder because she couldn’t overcome her urges.
At first, I was worried about that in itself, but when the phone kept turning off, I started to think something else was ominous.
What if Haerin Kang makes a different choice?
Now she must have noticed that she thought she was a paranoiac, or that she was a nonsensical but true fictional character.
If it’s the former, it’s okay to be hospitalized, but if it’s the latter, it’s no wonder that her ego collapses.
As they say, what if I were a character in a novel?
It seemed unbearable to me.
Knowing Kang Hae-rin’s impulsive personality when it comes to killing intent, I could also see that there was no law telling her not to direct it toward herself.
I am her creator.
It’s true that she came into my life out of nowhere and put me in trouble, but I don’t want her to be forced out of my life by committing suicide.
… honestly I don’t know either.
I don’t want her to kill anyone, but I don’t want her to die either.
I don’t have the confidence to love the girl who loves me, but I also think that it would be nice if she stayed by my side.
I was a pitiful human being.
Neither this nor the other, an incompetent human being.
But one thing.
I don’t want her to die like this.
The mind was certain.
“What would you like to drink? I will live.”
As we sat down at the cafe, Baek Yoo-ram asked me.
“… anything.”
“Hey, Lee Dong-min.”
Baek Yu-ram lowered his head and met my eyes.
“… I heard that Mr. Kang Hae-rin disappeared. Could that be our fault?”
Baek Yoo-ram had already had a drink because he had been to the cafe before Park Se-young or me.
As she wrapped her hand around the takeout glass, her tone seemed a bit questionable, but her expression wasn’t.
“If so, tell me so.”
“Who is it?”
I answered, avoiding her gaze.
How can it be said that the disappearance of Kang Hae-rin is the fault of Baek Yoo-ram and Park Se-young?
It’s more because you didn’t answer me.
Haerin Kang has been feeling confused about her presence lately, and as if trying to confirm it, she asked me about ‘our first meeting’.
This question should have been foreseen.
to make her not anxious.
Originally, in my novel, Kang Hae-rin and I met after my father’s death.
[… These were lonely days. I thought it would be comfortable if that garbage human disappeared, but it wasn’t. My sister and I barely said anything to each other. When we were together, the object of criticism was absent, so there was nothing more we could say.]
I don’t really think so, but ‘Lee Dong-min’ feels a little guilty because it’s a novel that starts with killing his father, who is still alive.
I deliberately wrote a description that I was lonely.
I really thought so too.
My sister and I are close, but since we’ve been separated for quite some time, the only conversations between us are about my father or mother or my novels.
Because my sister didn’t like to talk about herself.
Every time I asked him to tell me about my older sister, friends, or boyfriend, he would just turn around.
So, I imagined that if my father really died, there would be no words left between us, and that was also the basis for future development.
Tired of living in silence with my older sister, one day I meet a girl who keeps showing up near the house where my older sister and I live.
that was strong
She is very surprised that I recognized her.
That was the beginning of our meeting.
Kang Hae-rin fell in love with the son of the man she killed, and for the first time strangely feels ‘guilty’.
Afterwards, while wandering around our house, to my surprise, I break through and discover her stealth skills, and I have a premonition that this is a fateful encounter.
Anyway, if the most important event in the background narrative, the death of my father, disappears, the meeting between Kang Hae-rin and me itself becomes nothing.
You can’t say that a living person is dead, so I roughly omitted that part.
‘We met eyes near my house. As soon as I saw you, I fell in love with you too.’
But that was an insufficient explanation.
For me or for Haerin Kang.
In order for the emotional spark between the two of us to fly, there must have been an incident that preceded it.
Without that, it would be an impossible encounter.
Haerin Kang later asked me a few more questions about the incident, but as my sloppy answers continued, her expression seemed to get darker and darker.
you’re not satisfied
So, her disappearance was solely my responsibility.
“… Why is it your fault. I came to make chicken stir-fried soup delicious, but I’m sorry I sent you that way.”
As if thinking I was joking, Baek Yoo-ram laughed, and soon the smile came off his face.
“Then there was no point in ignoring our contact. You know what’s weird?”
“what?”
“I know because I also have an obsessive boyfriend. But do you need to look at your girlfriend that much?”
I didn’t answer.
Baek Yoo-ram does not know the relationship between me and Kang Hae-rin.
We weren’t just lovers.
Because it was a closer and deeper relationship than that.
However, he could not explain it, and even if he explained it, he would not understand it, so he was silent.
“Lee Dong-min.”
she said again.
“We will help.”
“what?”
“Kang Hae-rin, if you have a girlfriend, you know the house. I don’t know what happened that day, but let’s go together.”
Baek Yoo-ram softened his expression a little and said.
“This is my reward for helping my trashy boyfriend.”
“…I didn’t do anything special…”
“If you can help me, just take it. Because being grateful means being grateful. Understand? Take a picture of your home address.”
Baek Yoo-ram held out his phone.
“Yes, old man. We will help.”
Unlike Baek Yu-ram, Park Se-young, who was sitting right next to me, quietly held my hand and said.
“…Thank you, but…”
I pushed Baek Yoo-ram’s phone away.
“… I’ll go alone. My heart is grateful.”
Of course, I know Kang Hae-rin’s home address.
It will stand out as it is a detached house in a neighborhood famous for being rich and equipped with several supercars.
I’d be surprised if something like that suddenly popped up, but I’ve never been near that neighborhood in my entire life.
However, even in the novel, Kang Hae-rin ‘loved me so much’ that she never invited me to her house until the end of her obsession.
Since her studio was there, she was worried that I would be in charge of the bloody smell at all.
If I suddenly went to visit her because she didn’t even tell me her address, that would blow away my identity as the author of the novel.
I got up.
“Hey, wait!”
Park Se-young opened her arms as she spoke in a voice so loud that the people in the cafe looked back in surprise.
“great. Since it’s a problem between the two of you by conceding a hundred times, it would be right for the two of you to solve it. But, until when? Me too… I’ve never been in a relationship, but if you’re still not receiving calls, maybe you’re busy?”
“Things like that happen, too.”
“I’m careful to tell you… but then it wouldn’t be right to do this to us. As you said, we were there that day too, and since you keep doing this, it makes us uncomfortable too.”
“… Hey, Park Se-young.”
Baek Yu-ram got up and stopped her.
“He’s tough. If you do this…”
“no. Still, I have to say something. What is a lover? senior. I don’t know, but I heard that you respect each other’s privacy. I think it’s too obsessive to think that the other person is dead just because we haven’t heard from each other for a few days. It’s an unhealthy relationship.”
“……”
“Senior, did you know that Mr. Kang Hae-rin is now dead, as if he were dead? This is not right. to him too. Even us!”
“… hey… sorry. Dongmin, see you later…”
Baek Yu-ram pushed me on the back as if embarrassed.
“… it’s because we’re sad too. Do you know how much we talked about you when we left home that day? It’s because I’m worried… Be sure to call me when you’re feeling better, okay?”
I left them behind and came out.
A cold wind was blowing, and I was suddenly puzzled.
Do you need to care about me like this?
thank you though
Of course I was sorry.
He even made chicken stir-fry soup for no reason, and it got tangled up in complicated things like this.
I also thought that I should stop acting as if Kang Hae-rin was dead, as they said.
I still didn’t feel comfortable.
“… Ha, let’s wait one more day…”
It’s only been two days since Haerin Kang disappeared.
If you think about it as an artist, you cannot ignore the possibility that she went into hiding for ‘work’.
I’d love to stop it if possible, but I couldn’t go after it with the laptop messed up.
Yes, this is private life.
It may be that the knowledge she knows more about Kang Hae-rin than others makes her worry more.
I left a text message to Haerin Kang who didn’t reply.
Looking at the text history, there was something from my sister.
[Lee Dong-min, what’s wrong with you?]
“…does it really show off?”
I just felt sorry for myself.
I made a resolution to not worry about the people around me and take a little more time.
…🍵