Stranger

For the first time in a long time, Jang Heemang left work on time. She had arranged to meet up with some friends in Hongdae for a cocktail. She liked cocktails, but the place was famous for its drink snacks, so she looked forward to it even more. It had been a long time since she went out for drinks with others.

She planned to burn out all the stress she got from her workplace by talking to her friends. First, she needed someone to complain about. She felt like the only way to get rid of her frustration was to enthusiastically talk bad about her section chief who always changed his words and talked nonsense.

Still, Jang Heemang felt she had grown up. When she was a new employee, she would go to the restroom and weep. Now, she had grown brave enough to put her hands behind her back with her middle fingers up.

She just didn’t like the people there, but the work suited her. At first, handling money was scary and overwhelming, but now she could do it with her eyes closed. No one could outshine her at work. She felt happy as she thought so.

Her phone in her bag rang. She took out her phone, thinking it was her friend, and paused when she saw the caller. Yeon Woojeong. What’s up with this guy?

“Hello?”

—Hi.

“Yeah. It’s been a while.”

She did tell him to keep in touch, but she was curious why the guy who never listened to her called her first. She had never seen him since Kim Sarang’s wedding. Time really flies. That day was already…

—Did you get off work?

“Yeah. How about you?”

—I did. Heemang. Please do me a favor.

A favor? Did Yeon Woojeong ask me a favor?

Jang Heemang opened her eyes wide and checked Yeon Woojeong’s name on her phone. It surprised her to hear that from the guy who would never ask for help from others even if he was in trouble.

“What kind of favor?”

—Can you track withdrawal history with customer information?

“…… Well, I can.”

—I’ll send it to you through a message, so please track it tomorrow as soon as you get to work.

“What about the warrant?”

—I wouldn’t call you if I had it, would I?

Look at this bastard. Jang Heemang creased her forehead and stood on the roadside, leaning on one foot.

“Are you crazy? Are you shooting a spy movie?”

—Please help me. This is urgent.

“This will be recorded in the log.”

—I promise you nothing’s dangerous.

“What is this about? Ah, no, no! I can’t.”

Even though he’s a prosecutor, no, rather because he’s a prosecutor, he shouldn’t do this, right? He can just deal with it using a warrant, so why is he asking me a favor?

—He’s someone you know.

“Argh, stop it!”

—Heemang. Is this because I’m not crying?

“What?”

—It seems like just yesterday you were crying and calling me about getting into deposit fraud. Is this because I’m not crying like you? You know it, don’t you? That I have no tears.

She was speechless. His voice was so soft that it made her scared.

She still felt at a loss when she remembered the feeling of finally saving up enough money to get out of renting, only to have the bastard landlord disappear. She thought of everyone she knew. The only lawyer she knew was Yeon Woojeong. She called him and asked him to get her money back, weeping. If Yeon Woojeong hadn’t acted quickly, it would have been difficult for her to keep her money. 

—If not. You were desperate when you needed me, but when I need you, it looks insignificant?

Why is this bastard getting angry…

Jang Heemang scratched her forehead, feeling awkward. Even if it weren’t for the deposit, she often asked Yeon Woojeong if she was curious about something, and moreover… didn’t she get the biggest help from him when she was a little?

“Fi-fine. Send it. I’ll look at it tomorrow.”

—Okay. thank you.

The call ended. Look at this guy’s manner… Jang Heemang grumbled and stomped her foot.

What is it that made Yeon Woojeong so desperate like this? I don’t think he acts like that just because someone stole his money… I don’t know who it was, but I’m sure that person is dead meat if Yeon Woojeong doesn’t let go of him. He’s a vindictive guy. Jang Heemang shivered.

But she felt somewhat relieved to hear his voice and confirmed that he hadn’t lost his temper. She felt happy too. That guy always made people worry.

To put it nicely, Yeon Woojeong was the hero of the orphanage, and to put it plainly, he was a human shield.

He was also the most senior in the orphanage. Because he was the one who lived there for the longest time. She didn’t know since when he started living there. When Jang Heemang first arrived at the orphanage, Yeon Woojeong was already there. Woojeong, Heemang, Sarang. These three were the ones who had been at the orphanage the longest, in that order. They all had ridiculous names, so they were called the three musketeers.

The children without a name meant that they were abandoned at a very young age, without a name. The tacky names were given to them by the orphanage. For that reason alone, Jang Heemang felt a sense of kinship with Yeon Woojeong and Kim Sarang. 

But it wasn’t the same with Yeon Woojeong. He never welcomed her, who wanted to get close to him, or Kim Sarang, who was always kind and warm. The others teased them by asking why the three musketeers left Yeon Woojeong out, but it was safe to say that Yeon Woojeong was rather the one who left the others out.

Back then she thought he was a jerk for that, but now she knew. He must have thought all of them would leave. And in fact, the other kids left one by one.

Yeon Woojeong was a special kid. The director of the orphanage was the asshole of the asshole, and Yeon Woojeong never bent before him. The director was always nitpicking and hysterical about the smallest things. If someone did something wrong, or even if they didn’t do anything wrong, the director would make ridiculous rules, starve the kids, shame them, or beat them up on the head. Jang Heemang and the other kids were careful to not get on the director’s nerves and obeyed him. But Yeon Woojeong didn’t.

If the director was being a jerk, Yeon Woojeong would also do the same. He would even break his favorite pens if something unreasonable happened. Yeon Woojeong was the first and only child in the orphanage to get hit for real. The rules always came to nothing when Yeon Woojeong became a human shield. The director would starve Yeon Woojeong, and he sometimes gave the other kids food in front of him. So in a way, Yeon Woojeong was a hero.

However, it didn’t mean he was a righteous person. He looked the other way when other kids were getting beaten up or nitpicked unreasonably. But if that affected him, he only moved then. Yeon Woojeong would never turn the arrow to the other kids. 

It was what made Yeon Woojeong different from the other kids.

“Argh, fuck. Yeon Woojeong! You got us all in trouble!”

The kids, who shut their mouths and enjoyed the day when they benefited through Yeon Woojeong, would immediately reproach Yeon Woojeong when they suffered through him. Yeon Woojeong wouldn’t even bat an eye, though.

Jang Heemang liked that Yeon Woojeong. Literally. It was a feeling similar to respect. She envied him for not backing down, and even so, he wasn’t always righteous, and it made him look cool in her childhood’s eyes. 

Then, one day, a man visited the orphanage. When Seok Jungwon, a president of a quite famous corporation, visited the orphanage for the first time, he found Yeon Woojeong and talked to him. Something about him seemed to catch his eye. He would bring Yeon Woojeong along when he came to do volunteer work or donate. That was the start. The kids’ jealousy was directed at him.

It must have bothered the director as well. The patron liked Yeon Woojeong, the nuisance in his eyes, so he couldn’t hit him as hard as he used to. From his point of view, even if Yeon Woojeong acted as usual, he would have seemed to be mischievous without knowing how high the sky was. Thus, he targeted the three musketeers.

Actually, it was hard. Getting hit in invisible places, getting her complexes poked in front of the other kids, and getting discriminated against openly. Being a human shield was harder and scarier than she imagined.

But she didn’t show it. She wanted to go to Yeon Woojeong and ask why they needed to go through that hardship, but Kim Sarang stopped her. However…

“Woojeong. Can’t you just be obedient? Just, take it easy! Let me live, please!”

That gentle and kind Kim Sarang exploded for the first time. Yeon Woojeong did nothing. The director was just harassing them as usual. It was just… his harassment was too much.

Yeon Woojeong listened to Kim Sarang’s outburst quietly, then he broke into the director’s office. An ambulance arrived, then a police car as well. Lastly, President Seok Jungwon.

It seemed that Yeon Woojeong called them. That prideful Yeon Woojeong.

That fortunately ended well, and all the orphanage children were moved to Yeojeong-won. She didn’t know if Yeon Woojeong also asked the president to take care of the other kids as well, but she was sure that they could live like human beings thanks to Yeon Woojeong.

She saw Yeon Woojeong open up to President Seok, walk in and out of his house, and interact with his family. He studied hard and became a prosecutor, so it was surely something to celebrate, but she was ambivalent about Yeon Woojeong. 

Why him? Why wasn’t it me? Why couldn’t I stand out? She had such crude jealousy.

She hoped Yeon Woojeong would live happily, but when she saw him living well, she felt weird, yet she still hoped for him to live well.

Jang Heemang heaved a sigh. Still, his temper had gotten better. The guy who never listened now could play a joke brazenly. But she couldn’t be at ease. She spent the hardest time with him, so sometimes, she felt restless when she remembered those times.

But well… he looked happy at Kim Sarang’s wedding. I should ask what happened. Jang Heemang put in her phone and walked. First, it was time to think about the cocktail she would have.