39 – How Gangs Handle School Violence (10)
When Haan and I first met, the boundaries blurred when I delved deep into thoughts, just like it did back then.
Even now, after listening to the story from Lira and getting lost in thought for a moment, I’ve become insensitive to the events around me.
So, unlike usual, I only noticed the appearance of Mr. Hahyuksoo, who would usually be sensed before entering the cafe, when he opened his mouth now.
Mr. Hahyuksoo knows how to silence his presence, and there’s more to it.
He used to be a top candidate for the national representative. That explains his light footsteps, enough for me not to notice.
Now that I’ve realized Mr. Hahyuksoo has heard everything, only complicated situations remain.
“Ah, how is my dad here…”
You can tell by looking at Lira’s face, partially open in astonishment.
How should I handle this? Should I leave it to Mr. Hahyuksoo since it’s family? But Lira feels suffocated because of Mr. Hahyuksoo’s obsession. She begged to bring it out. Can I do such a thing recklessly?
As I was contemplating how to deal with Mr. Hahyuksoo’s appearance, I felt an unusual level of enmity and anger boiling behind me.
Stronger enmity and anger than when he kicked me in the emergency room. No, words like enmity or anger are not enough to describe this heavy and sharp feeling.
This is murderous intent.
It can’t be expressed with just the thought of wanting to kill. It’s the overwhelming and sharp murderous intent that only someone who has resolved to kill can emit.
“Halira, is that true, dad is asking.”
Even though Mr. Hahyuksoo is emitting such a severe murderous intent, his voice is strangely calm to the point of being excessive.
They say anger becomes calm when it reaches its limit, and Mr. Hahyuksoo’s current state is exactly that.
“Uh, uh…”
Lira, who seems to have seen Mr. Hahyuksoo in such a state for the first time, was pale and didn’t know what to do.
Well, no matter how tough life is, Lira is still a child. A minor. It’s only natural for someone who hasn’t even turned twenty to be shocked and stiff when they see their dad emitting murderous intent.
“······.”
As expected, in the end, Rhee couldn’t answer Mr. Hahksoo’s question.
It wasn’t because it was a difficult question to answer; it was because Mr. Hahksoo was so frozen, struggling to breathe under the weight of his exhaled breath.
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However, it wasn’t good to just stay like this.
Even if he appeared calm, it wasn’t that he became calm, but rather, it was so infuriating that it seemed like he became calm. The current Mr. Hahksoo was like a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.
And since Mr. Hahksoo’s nature didn’t change, silently enduring this would eventually lead to a calm or wild explosion that no one could stop.
Am I the only one? The only one here who can prevent Mr. Hahksoo’s explosion.
Thinking it’s better for it to explode outside the cafe than inside, I stood up, intending to take Mr. Hahksoo outside.
“······Alright. Fine. I got it.”
Unexpectedly, before I could do anything, Mr. Hahksoo left his seat first.
Turning my head in the unexpected situation, looking at Mr. Hahksoo’s back, he was walking out, dragging his slippers, just like when he came to the emergency room.
Mr. Hahksoo’s current appearance was that of a despairing adult on the verge of collapse to anyone who saw it.
But it looked different to me.
Mr. Hahksoo’s back was not the powerless figure of someone defeated and in despair but rather a figure storing up energy just before exploding, striving for propulsion.
“······This is really a big problem.”
Having experienced how fierce a cornered rat could become in the early days of his gangster life, he could understand how fierce Mr. Hahksoo could become.
If left alone like that, a real catastrophe would happen, and someone, or several people, would undoubtedly die.
Even those insignificant rats had pointed their knives at him. If Mr. Hahksoo moved like someone with nothing to lose, it would truly be a disaster.
I had to hold onto Mr. Hahksoo. Otherwise, we would lose Rhee’s father.
But it didn’t seem easy to easily stop Mr. Hahksoo in that state. Even if I tried to stop him, it would take a really long time, and dawn was inevitable.
The probability of the day breaking couldn’t stop.
Since there’s no parent in the world who can just stand still when their child was almost hurt or killed.
“Sigh, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Oh, oppa?”
First, I had to send Lira to a safe place, so I reluctantly gave her my home address.
Lira was being targeted by crazy guys who push people off the third floor after flipping their hair. It’s dangerous for her to be alone at home.
“Lira, you have the address written on the business card I gave you, right? Bargil Entertainment. Go there and say Manager Kang Jinhyuk sent you, go to the fourth floor. The entrance will come out there, enter the password 0707, and there will be a pretty sister. Just tell her that you’ll stay for just today, that Manager sent you. Got it?”
Since there are many empty rooms and clothes to wear at home, it wouldn’t be a problem for Lira to stay for a day.
Even if something happens, mentioning my name at Bargil Entertainment shouldn’t cause any issues.
Bringing Lira, who has a home and a guardian, into my house and letting her stay was, of course, something I hesitated about, but in this situation, I had no choice.
Now that Lira is relieved, I should go. Mr. Hahyuksoo’s footsteps are getting faster, so I might miss him if I’m late.
After removing the chair and getting up from my seat, Lira looked at me with a face that seemed unsure of what to do.
“Wh-what about you, oppa?”
Although Lira was asking what I would do, the worry and concern in her voice were directed towards Mr. Hahyuksoo, not me.
It was the eyes of a daughter worrying about her father.
She said it’s hard because he’s too clingy and controlling, but still, he must be her dad. Yeah, that makes sense. That’s why there’s a saying that family is family.
Confirming once again that my instincts were right, I smiled at Lira to reassure her.
“I will bring Mr. Hahyuksoo, not oppa.”
2.
For Hahyuksoo, who grew up in an orphanage, his wife was the only connection he had, and she was everything to him.
Therefore, it was only natural that the daughter born in exchange for his wife’s life, named Harira, became everything to him.
After his wife’s death and cutting ties with relatives, Ha Hyuksu, who was left alone, had only learned Taekwondo.
So, naturally, Taekwondo was also the most lucrative skill he could employ.
He was only a national representative and a strong candidate, with no career beyond that, and no money to set up a Taekwondo studio. However, he could still become an instructor at his junior’s Taekwondo studio.
Working as a subordinate late into the night, Ha Hyuksu was grateful that he could provide for his daughter Harira.
The more challenging it became for his body and mind, the more precious Harira became. As the money invested in parenting increased, Harira became more lovable.
Harira was Ha Hyuksu’s only blood and his only family.
Unlike his wife who sacrificed herself for their daughter, Ha Hyuksu hoped Harira would be safe and healthy.
If he lived like that, taking care not to get hurt in his arms, and continued living without any trouble, Ha Hyuksu believed he would be happy.
But on the day of Harira’s high school entrance ceremony, her first act of rebellion shattered that belief.
And today, when he secretly followed Harira after she left home, Ha Hyuksu’s trust shattered into pieces as he heard about the things she had experienced and the emotions she had felt.
He had believed that as long as he embraced her and protected her from all the storms of the world, she would grow up happily. He believed without a doubt. Was that wrong?
Moreover, despite raising her with love and care, she wasn’t living a safe life.
Harira was living a dangerous life to the point where her head was split by a baseball bat and she was pushed out of a window.
Ha Hyuksu felt the frustration of all his efforts in life being invalidated and, at the same time, realized that he couldn’t stay in the same space as Harira any longer. There was no dignity in that.
Originally, if it had been Kang Jinhyuk, or just any other man sitting in a cafe with her, Ha Hyuksu would have caused a scene and forcibly taken Harira away. But he quietly left for the same reason.
“······.”
In the winter night, which had become even colder after the sunset, Ha Hyuksu was left alone.
The streets were almost empty due to the extremely cold winter night, and silence flowed in the deserted streets.
Silence made people contemplate, and Ha Hyuksu, lost in contemplation, recalled what he had to do now.
No matter how much he thought about it, there was only one thing he had to do, one thing he could do.
“······.”
Thud.
Due to the tightly clenched fist, unkempt nails, unattended, dug into the flesh of the palm.
Biting it hard, the jaw tensed, and in the clearly open eyes, an intense anger surged with excessive flesh.
There was only one thing he could do. One thing he had to do.
Hahyeoksu had lived to protect his everything, his daughter, but in the end, he couldn’t protect her, and that fueled his anger.
Simultaneously, he was enraged at those who almost killed his daughter.
What he could do was eliminate all the causes of his anger.
That way, Lira would be happy.
In the secretly eavesdropped story of Harira, there were two people who had turned her life into hell.
As a father, could he not deal with those two at once?
“Let’s go. To finish it all.”
At the moment Hahyeoksu, determined, took a step while muttering to himself, a nonchalant voice came from behind him.
“Yes, let’s go!”