a Gangster Return To Highschool, Chapter 01
Chapter 01
1. Let's Stay Home on Rainy Days
Kim Deuk-pal, aged 47. His dream is to enter university.
On a winter day with drizzle, in a traditional Korean house with a pond in its garden, a student preparing for the college entrance exam was burning with academic zeal. Although he was an older student compared to others, his passion was no less than that of youthful vigor, and he pressed his pencil hard while solving math problems.
Every time he solved a math problem, the dragon tattoo on his forearm seemed to wriggle. Despite it being winter, the muscles visible under his short-sleeved shirt bulged, making the dragon's body vibrant with life. The private tutor from Daechidong, sweating coldly, tried not to meet the eyes of the dragon on his biceps.
After finishing the last problem, the tutor, having drawn red lines all over the page, tidied up the workbook.
“...That will be all for today's lesson. Good work.”
“Yes, thank you for your hard work, teacher.”
Kim Deuk-pal, the late-blooming student, closed his workbook with respect after bowing. The pages of the workbook, showing how much he had studied, were darkened with ink where he had progressed.
The room was spacious, and as he followed the tutor who was packing his bag to leave, Kim Deuk-pal casually voiced his concern.
“I'm really worried about not getting good math scores.”
As a Korean proud of his heritage, Kim Deuk-pal was confident in Korean language and history, but math, along with English, dragged down his average. Just voicing his concern as a student, the tutor's face turned pale and he stuttered.
“W-well, m-math is like that. It's a subject where basics are crucial, even current students struggle to raise their scores. You've done well considering you passed the
GED. I-I don't mean to belittle the GED or anything...!”
Fearing reprisal for seeming to look down on GED graduates, the tutor hastily explained while Kim Deuk-pal opened the door covered with traditional Korean paper. On either side of the door stood men in black suits, bowing deeply - the reason for the tutor's excessive tension.
“You've come out, boss!”
The large men shouted in unison, and Kim Deuk-pal stepped aside to let the tutor pass.
“Teacher, you're leaving. Escort him.”
“Yes! Understood!”
Kim Deuk-pal gestured for the tutor to leave, and the tutor clutched his bag like a lifeline. He had accepted the tutoring job for the hefty fee, but staying calm in a den of gangsters covered in knife and tattoo scars was tough for a lifelong ordinary citizen.
The gangsters under Kim Deuk-pal, referred to as "little brothers," escorted (or rather, dragged) the tutor away. Instead of returning to his room, Kim Deuk-pal walked to the open veranda overlooking the garden.
With his hands in his pockets, Kim Deuk-pal's silhouette looked lonely as he gazed at the garden.
The December frost had left the garden bleak. With only bare branches of wisteria and dark, wet stones, the garden exuded a gloomy atmosphere. However, the garden truly shone not on rainy days like today, but on snowy days.
The command to avoid the ongoing conversation was one that Kim Dong-soo followed with utmost respect. A subordinate waiting in the corridor where Kim Deukpal was passing offered him a tracksuit, holding it up with both hands. As Kim Deukpal slipped his arms into the tracksuit and entered the garage, the air, heavy with moisture, was tinged with the scent of dust and oil. A subordinate waiting by the black sedan opened the driver's door.
"Have a great time, boss!"
The burly man closed the car door after Kim Deuk-pal got in and stepped back with a bow. The garage door lifted in sync with his booming voice.
The headlights of the smoothly moving sedan illuminated the torrential rain pelting the world.
Contrary to the weather forecast predicting snow, heavy rain fell on the December streets.
As the traffic light at the intersection turned red, cars halted along the white lines on the road. The black sedan with Kim Deuk-pal inside stopped right in front of the crosswalk, watching a group of students cross the street. Dressed in black padded coats, looking like bundles of kimbap, they were giggling incessantly, with a couple of them suddenly dashing out from under their umbrellas. Kim Deuk-pal couldn't take his eyes off the group that followed.
Born as the second son in a family notorious for poverty in Mokpo, where having many children was common despite the hardship, Kim Deuk-pal never experienced the freedom he longed for. His family had stopped him from attending elementary school to support his eldest brother, and he had run away to Seoul. There, he never set foot in a school again.
In Seoul, Kim Deuk-pal worked at a factory by day and drank soju by night. His fierce appearance often led to trouble, and his exceptional fighting skills caught the eye of local thugs, ending his teenage years with him joining the gang.
Involved in illegal activities and living the gangster life of sleeping during the day and working at night, school was out of the question. Kim Deuk-pal had let go of any regrets and focused on gang activities.
He thought he had shed all regrets back then, but now, after more than twenty years, those regrets resurfaced.
Instead of enduring a meaningless hard life, he could have taken over the gang and lived comfortably, but the longing to step onto a school campus once held him back. This wasn't just any regret; he couldn't attend a local university because he had to juggle gang duties, and he didn't want an online degree even though academic credentials weren't necessary. He knew he would be mocked for it, so he never spoke of it, but Kim Deuk-pal wanted to go to a university in Seoul like an ordinary 20-yearold. It was a foolish and ignorant dream.
With a bitter smile, Kim Deuk-pal started the car as the light turned green. The wheels cut through the puddles on the asphalt.
His destination was a regular café on the outskirts of Seoul. Made of logs, it was a place where the owner played live guitar on rainy days. Listening to the guitar by the window where raindrops flowed was an old hobby of Kim Deuk-pal. Despite his rough fists, his emotions were delicate.
As he moved further out, fewer cars were on the road. At such a late hour and with such bad weather, few ventured out, leaving the road nearly empty.
The rain grew heavier, making the road slick, with the wet asphalt glistening under the lights. Kim Deuk-pal drove with extra caution, his sharp gaze fixed on the road ahead.
The habit of surveying the scene in a fight carried over to driving. As he scanned the road, he noticed an overpass, and then a person holding onto the railing caught his eye.
"...Hmm?"
The face of the man holding onto the pedestrian bridge's railing was not visible due to the distance, but his appearance seemed suspicious. Despite the cold weather nearing Christmas, the man was only wearing what looked like a white, single-layer pajama, which was also soaked and clinging to his skin due to the rain. His posture, stretching out over the railing to look down, appeared dangerous.
Kim Deuk-pal, who had been driving while fixated on the pedestrian bridge rather than the road, felt his thick eyebrows twitch. Squinting to confirm if he saw correctly, he realized as he got closer that the man on the bridge looked young. At that moment, the man put his foot on the railing.
Below the bridge, a large truck was approaching from the opposite side of the road where Kim Deuk-pal was. The truck driver seemed not to have noticed the man on the bridge and did not slow down. Kim Deuk-pal honked his horn. However, due to the sound of the rain, the horn seemed to go unheard as the truck continued towards the bridge. Meanwhile, the boy slipped in the rain and managed to get over the railing.
Hanging outside the railing, the man crouched down after looking below. Standing on a narrow ledge outside the railing, his position seemed precarious.
"......!"
As Kim Deuk-pal got closer to the bridge, he honked his horn frantically. However, the heavy downpour swallowed all sounds.
The boy hanging on the railing let go with one hand and leaned his body at an angle. The strong wind and rain made him sway, and holding on with just one arm was not enough to support him on the slippery railing; he was about to fall.
There was no time to stop the car and talk the boy down from the bridge. The truck from the opposite side was getting closer, and the truck driver still hadn't noticed the boy. The bridge wasn't high enough for a fall to be fatal, but hitting the truck would surely kill him.
Realizing this, Kim Deuk-pal didn't hesitate; he turned the wheel sharply. The black sedan, splashing water, swerved onto the adjacent road. The headlights from the oncoming truck brightly illuminated the interior of the black sedan.
Beep-beep-!
The truck driver honked because of the black sedan suddenly cutting in front. Kim Deuk-pal wasn't trying to cause an accident but to stop the truck; he didn't stop and kept turning the wheel. His eyes flashed sharply as he drove. The black sedan narrowly avoided the truck and skidded towards the sidewalk.
The plan seemed to be working, but even Kim Deuk-pal couldn't control the pouring rain and wet road.
The truck driver hit the brakes, but the large truck slid on the wet surface, and the black sedan, unable to stop, spun in a half-circle.
Kim Deuk-pal tried to slow down by pumping the brakes, but the uncontrolled black sedan slid towards the large truck due to the water.
The eyes of the truck driver and Kim Deuk-pal met. The shocked driver froze, unable to react. Both vehicles, losing traction, moved across the road. The headlights of both vehicles flared brightly as the heavy rain shattered into white droplets.
They were going to collide. Kim Deuk-pal did not avoid the blinding light. In the urgency that felt like a chokehold, he turned the wheel to find a way to survive. When the gear preventing the wheel from turning further started to crack, Kim Deuk-pal's eyes widened.
The boy who had fallen from the bridge had light brown eyes.
The boy rolled off the large truck and fell onto the hood of the black sedan.
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