a Gangster Return To Highschool, Chapter 02
Chapter 02
The moment the boy sank into the dazzling light seemed to slow down. His hand stretched towards the sky as if trying to grasp something, making his white feet in the air stand out helplessly. His rain-soaked hair clumped together, fluttering slowly. The side of the boy's face, illuminated by the intense light, was blurred with smudged lines. His eyes, which had been looking at the sky, slowly rolled. The brown eyes, rolling from the wet corner of his eyes, fixed on Kim Deuk-pal.
Kim Deuk-pal couldn't take his eyes off the boy's eyes, the boy he hadn't even known the name of but had tried to save. He stared at those brown eyes, forgetting what he had been doing.
The windshield wipers cleared the glass. The moment the black wipers cut off their gaze, time seemed to regain its pace as if chains had been broken. The boy fell in an instant.
Boom!
A massive impact shook the black sedan. Kim Deuk-pal, swept up by the shock, bounced back and forth. He slammed into the windshield, then was pulled back by the seatbelt, blood dripping from his head. Clinging to his fading vision, he desperately searched for the boy.
The boy had fallen onto the crumpled, dented hood of the car like a piece of paper. The light from the half-broken headlight illuminated the boy's fingertips. The limp fingers did not move.
Was he alive?
He hoped he was. That young kid...
Struggling to keep his consciousness, Kim Deuk-pal eventually blacked out. His body, slumped forward, was held by the seatbelt, and red blood mixed with the rain as it flowed out of the driver's seat.
Only the harsh warning sound of the car rang out at the accident scene where the downpour was fierce.
...
To confess a truth that cannot be spoken to others, Kim Deuk-pal actually yearned not for 'university' but for 'a life after university.'
He longed for a normal life where he could attend university, graduate, work at a company, get married, raise children, and grow old. However, since all he knew was gang life, he doubted whether he could even get a job or have a proper marriage.
Some of his colleagues and subordinates had met good women, left the organization, and got married, but such luck never came to Kim Deuk-pal. Even if he met a crazy woman, there were few jobs he could do outside the organization, so remaining in the gang was the better option to lead a somewhat normal life.
University was just a part of Kim Deuk-pal's lingering regrets. And it was the only part he could achieve on his own, being over forty.
He wanted to live the life he had given up, even if just for a year, no, even a month, by going to university. He thought he would have no regrets even if he died then.
What use would regrets be when facing death?
Kim Deuk-pal was certain of his death. Getting stabbed or seriously injured in fights over territory was commonplace. He knew from experience that surviving after losing consciousness while bleeding out in an unclear rescue situation was unlikely.
What about the boy who had fallen from the overpass?
The face looking down from the overpass seemed to be that of a high school student, quite young. If Kim Deuk-pal had married at the right age and had a child, he would have been around the same age as that boy. Seeing a kid of his child's age trying to jump off an overpass to die, Kim Deuk-pal knew he would have swerved the steering wheel even if the situation were repeated.
What use was all this when he was dead?
The faint murmurs seemed like the resentful grumbles of the dead, and oddly, Kim Deuk-pal felt his body, which was strangely light, was about the weight of a soul. Despite his rugged appearance, Kim Deuk-pal was sentimental and had a naive side when it came to superstitions.
Though he hadn't seriously contemplated death, if this was what death felt like, it wasn't so bad, enveloping Kim Deuk-pal with a sense of comfort. He didn't want to die, but on the other hand, he was looking forward to it. In the next life, he thought, he would go to school, live a normal life, properly.
He thought he would go to hell because of his gangster activities in life, but apparently, that wasn't the case. Kim Deuk-pal felt as if he was lying wrapped in a white veil. The brightness that usually depicted heaven in dramas seeped through his eyelids.
Was he now just waiting for the stairs to heaven to descend? Kim Deuk-pal, soaked in a strange sense of release from having finished his life, waited for his turn. For the high steps that would unfold before him.
However, life was never that simple.
The murmurs that had been faint grew louder, shattering the peace of waiting for heaven.
"...You bastard! You killed someone and you won't even show your face?! Come out, you son of a bitch! Come out and beg!"
"Shit, drag him out! Don't fall back! We have to drag that bastard to the boss!"
The familiar voices gave Kim Deuk-pal a sense of déjà vu. He had heard these rough tones many times. Even just hearing them, he could picture his subordinates, their fierce faces frowning, pushing with their bear-like builds.
Nowadays, gangsters pretend to be civilized, not showing their true colors. They swing baseball bats bought as gifts for their nephews while dressed in suits, engage in fights where there are no clear winners or when the police arrive, they blend into the crowd to escape. They also pretended to be elite criminals, swindling people with intelligent schemes.
So, Kim Deuk-pal had repeatedly warned them. To handle things quietly without causing a commotion, as police involvement in gang matters was the most troublesome. He told them not to draw attention and make their efforts to disguise as civilians meaningless, but his easily excited subordinates often couldn't control their tempers.
Living by loyalty and dying by it, Kim Deuk-pal couldn't abandon his subordinates who got arrested by the police. Those caught would rot in jail unless he, the boss, bailed them out. So, he often covertly got his men out of detention. The second thing he bought the most after cigarettes was tofu.
"You killed someone and you're just lying there! You bastard! Can you sleep?
Because of you, because of you, my boss..."
"Move, damn it! Hey, bring out the tools!"
Once he became aware, the commotion grew uncontrollably. Profanities were exchanged, and there was the sound of a door rattling, possibly from a physical fight. It was impossible to ignore. Despite having managed to keep things quiet for the last few years, the idiots had forgotten his warnings to shut up before the cops came, and Kim Deuk-pal's irritation flared.
He was sick of using dirty tricks and bribes to get his subordinates out. With his temples throbbing, Kim Deuk-pal got up. He didn't even feel the firmness of the bed before his feet hit the ground.
Still under the influence of anesthesia from surgery, painkillers, and the effects of the accident, his body was numb, and his consciousness was hazy. Kim Deuk-pal didn't realize what was wrong. He didn't notice the unfamiliar feeling of his feet on the dry tiles or the IV needle that snagged as he moved.
"The patient hasn't regained consciousness! This won't help here!"
"You think we don't know you're hiding him?! Move! I won't leave until I see with my own eyes!"
"Call the police!"
"Did we have knives? Did we punch him? We're just taking him!"
"The patient inside must have absolute rest-!"
Creak- Kim Deuk-pal opened the sliding door at the end of his dragging steps. The commotion ceased momentarily at the unexpected appearance. The hospital staff, who had been blocking the gangsters, turned around in surprise to see the hardened gangsters now silent.
The hospital staff member brightened up when they spotted Kim Deuk-pal leaning against the doorframe.
“The patient is conscious...!”
Kim Deuk-pal intended to reprimand his subordinate who had disturbed an ordinary citizen, particularly Kim Dong-soo, who was leading the group of gangsters. He was disappointed that the one who should have been leading the underlings in his absence was stirring up trouble instead, fueling his irritation.
Having subdued his opponent, Kim Deuk-pal lifted his chin with his usual expression. His indifferent gaze, which seemed to mock, was possible because of his above-average height. He looked down at Kim Dong-soo, ready to give a cold rebuke, but all he could see was Kim Dong-soo's collar area. Something felt off.
“Get out of the way!”
To make matters worse, Kim Dong-soo grabbed him by the collar. Kim Deuk-pal, who had always been treated with respect by his direct subordinate Kim Dong-soo, was taken aback when Kim Dong-soo grabbed and dragged him; he couldn't shake off the hand in his shock. He was dragged helplessly. Staggering like a paper doll, he slammed his bare feet against the floor, breaking his big toe. “Patient!”
Hospital staff tried to intervene, but other gangsters formed a human barricade with their shoulders. White-clad arms flailed above the shoulders of the men in black suits.
Kim Deuk-pal tried to loosen the hand gripping his collar. Despite stumbling and not being able to walk properly due to the grip strength, he managed to grab Kim Dong-soo's arm. Then, he finally realized something was strange.
His fingers were slender.
They weren't the calloused, rough fingers with swollen knuckles he expected. The hand that gripped Kim Dong-soo’s forearm, following Kim Deuk-pal's will, was white and slender. The thin skin showed veins, and the bones protruded with each movement of the fingers. There were no calluses anywhere, suggesting the life of the hand's owner was not that of a gangster.
"Fuck."
With this low curse, Kim Deuk-pal snapped back to reality. The hand resting on Kim Dong-soo’s forearm fell limply.
Where Kim Dong-soo stopped was in front of the elevator. While Kim Dong-soo impatiently pressed the button, Kim Deuk-pal saw his own reflection in the shiny stainless steel.
A strange boy stood there. Weak and sickly, the boy seemed to have nothing in common with Kim Deuk-pal, yet he knew this boy.
Kim Deuk-pal reached out towards the elevator. The boy in the stainless steel also extended his hand towards Kim Deuk-pal.
"Come here."
As the lobby elevator took its time to ascend, Kim Dong-soo yanked the boy by the collar and descended through the emergency exit next to the elevator.
Kim Deuk-pal was dragged without falling because Kim Dong-soo had him by the collar. The boy was skinny with protruding bones and thin muscles. Fresh out of surgery, he had no strength in his limbs, and his knees kept buckling, but Kim Dongsoo showed no mercy as he went down the stairs.
The bare feet in the hospital gown turned black with dust as they descended the stairs. His heels slipped off the edges, and his toes, hitting against the steps, bled.
However, this pain was just a sensation confirming Kim Deuk-pal's body.
The vivid pain, the panting breath, the vision turning white. These were experiences unknown to Kim Deuk-pal, who had only known his strong physique, but this was his current state.
Why did he see the boy from the overpass in the elevator door reflection?
Why was he so out of breath?
Is it because I look like a boy that Kim Dong-soo grabbed my collar?
Then... who am I really? Kim Deuk-pal?
Feeling that he shouldn't go along with this, Kim Deuk-pal managed to grab the railing. Clutching the thin bar connecting the handrail to the stairs, he sat down, preventing himself from being dragged away by Kim Dong-soo.
Kim Dong-soo's eyes, bloodshot, stared down at the boy's round head. He kicked the boy's wrist to make him let go of the bars and grabbed his collar, pushing him against the wall.
Thud-!
Kim Deuk-pal gasped in pain that pierced through his upper body from his back. Kim Dong-soo pressed down on the boy's collarbone with his forearm, bringing his face close to his. Near his eyes, traces of dried tears were visible.
Only then did Kim Deuk-pal see what he hadn't noticed before. Kim Dong-soo's face was dark under the eyes and haggard, his black tie and suit disheveled. Kim Deuk-pal faintly understood why Kim Dong-soo had gathered his subordinates to cause a commotion.
“Ugh...”
“You little shit.”
Since he wasn't Kim Deuk-pal, Kim Dong-soo mercilessly pressed down on the boy's neck.
“You jumped, didn't you? That's why the accident happened. Someone died because of you, and you don't even show your face? Are you even human? For this worthless piece of shit, the boss, the boss...”
The hand holding the collar trembled. With bloodshot, distorted eyes, Kim Dongsoo pulled his fist back. Filled with injustice, sorrow, and anger, he threw a punch at Kim Deuk-pal, who was in the guise of a boy.
However, the punch aimed at the cheek only grazed the boy's hair near his ear and hit the wall. As his skin tore, Kim Dong-soo slowly collapsed. “Ugh, gasp, sob...”
His back, kneeling on the floor, twitched slightly before turning into sobs. Looking down at Kim Dong-soo, who was crying like a child, Kim Deuk-pal in the boy's form also slid down the wall.
"Boss... sob..."
The sound of crying echoed in the stairwell between the tall buildings. Sitting with his thin legs folded in the narrow space between the wall and Kim Dong-soo, Kim Deuk-pal raised his hand. His thin wrist, which seemed like it could be grabbed in one hand, trembled slightly but clenched into a fist by his will.
Even after repeating it several times, reality did not change. The dry, powerless hand was now Kim Deuk-pal's hand.
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