Top Secret

Even if it was Christmas Eve, it didn’t mean everyone was happy. Some people were sentenced to a farewell, having the ring they’d prepared after gathering a lot of courage returned to them. Some people ate expensive food without being able to taste it. While everyone was painted as having a blast, there were also some people who worked hard to pick up after troublesome people.

Jaeyoon sat on an old chair with yellow filling sticking out, glancing around. It wasn’t even late at night, but a drunkard was already occupying the corner seat, leaning his limp body back in it, and you could hear a loud quarrel between a woman in a short miniskirt who seemed a little risqué and a taxi driver.

The police station he had never entered or seen before seemed unfriendly and unrefined, not any different on Christmas Eve.

“Name and resident registration number. Give me your address.”

Jaeyoon looked up at the policeman sitting in front of him and writing the police report with a timid expression. Of course, Sieon, who was sitting next to him, looked very nonchalant. At the officer’s request, he threw his wallet and didn’t hide his annoyed look. Then the eyes of the officer who was writing the report became fierce.

“Are you kidding with me right now?”

The policeman seemed rendered speechless due to Sieon’s brazen attitude of sitting with his legs crossed, completely indifferent. To no avail, a frightened Jaeyoon looked at Sieon. What kind of shameless attitude was that, after causing an accident and going to the police station? When the red blood on the collar of Sieon’s silver dress shirt caught his attention, the situation from a little while ago came to Jaeyoon’s mind as if it were unfolding before his very eyes.

The broken-hearted man, who was complaining after grabbing Jaeyoon, rolled around on the ground after being hit by a fist that flew in from somewhere. The ‘bam’ sounded like a sound effect from an action movie, so it seemed like he got hit properly. The lovelorn man coughed and before he could pull himself together, was jabbed in his back with feet wearing shoes. Then, as he was again rolling on the ground, the other climbed on top of him and punched him. Jaeyoon wasn’t sure if the sound of him stopping Sieon came first or if the voices of the other people who entered the parking lot did; what he clearly recalled was that he vividly witnessed the expression of ‘The splattering blood’.

In fact, Sieon had only hit the broken-hearted man a few times, but because he’d always had a powerful fist, the lovelorn man couldn’t resist even one punch and his face had torn here and there, needing to be taken to a nearby hospital for brief emergency treatment. He was sitting in the back now.

“I’m never going to settle! Such a bastard should be thrown in jail!”

He shouted with unclear pronunciation because of his swollen mouth.

“Quiet. Why’s the dumb, salty bastard that got dumped by a girl, boozed himself up and cried meddling?”

“You-You know how I feel!”

“I do know you’re a lousy bastard.”

“Quiet down, please. Are you a hoodlum, Park Jeong Sieon-ssi? If you have complaints, talk it out. Why hit people?”

“Because that guy hit first. Can you say so even after you’ve seen his face? This was self-defense.”

When Sieon pushed Jaeyoon’s face toward the policeman, he became embarrassed. The policeman examined Jaeyoon’s face in detail through narrowed eyes. It was true that he’d gotten hit, but it was too embarrassing to compare his stinging jaw with the lovelorn man’s half bandaged face.

“When did I beat that guy up! Did you see it? Did you?!?”

“It will have been recorded by the CCTV in the parking lot. Should I just make a DVD and send it to that Miyeon girl as a package? How you were rolling around like a wuss?”

“This fucker!!”

“Be quiet!!”

At the never-ending argument, a seemingly seasoned officer banged on the table with a folder. A nearby policeman stood up and grabbed the shoulders of the broken-hearted man, who was ready to run with his staggering body, and stopped him.

His gaze alternated between Sieon, who was arrogantly lifting Jaeyoon’s chin and smirking as if to say ‘Just try it’, and the lovelorn man seething with anger, and he sighed.

Then, Sieon’s mobile phone rang in his pocket.

[Why aren’t you coming? Where are you, you bastard?]

The loud voice that even Jaeyoon who was sitting next to him could hear was not just slightly angry.

“Police station.”

[…….]

The force that was about to pour out calmed down in an instant. And with quick wits, he immediately asked [How many of them? 8? 10?]. It seemed like Sieon hadn’t caused only one or two such incidents. After all, even what little Jaeyoon knew, his ten fingers weren’t enough for counting.

“One.”

[What?]

“A weasel-like son of a bitch got dumped by a woman and was acting like a stupid shit, so I helped him out a little. He now looks like a raccoon’s cousin from the swelling.”

The two sweaty policemen who were trying to stop the broken-hearted man, who was becoming more agitated with each point Sieon stressed, as if the latter wanted to hear him squirm while snickering, looked at the agitator with resentment. Cold sweat trickled down Jaeyoon’s back. Lamenting Sieon’s superciliousness now was of no use; perhaps this was how he’d built up his antisocial character and gained the ability to make a person’s insides turn. A sigh escaped naturally.

He picked up two Yulmu-cha1 from the vending machine and went to find him. Maybe because he went out to smoke, Sieon was standing in front of the garbage bin at the police station entrance, looking at Jaeyoon who was approaching with a grim expression. When he reached out to hand it over, Sieon took it and just put it beside him. It seemed like he didn’t have any intention of drinking (it). The Yulmu-cha quickly cooled down in the cold winter, so it didn’t have any flavour and just left the end of his tongue refreshed.

“You go.”

“Eh?”

“Even if you’re here, there’s nothing you can do. Go home.”

“But….”

Jaeyoon couldn’t answer readily and dilly-dallied, just twirling the paper cup with the cooled Yulmu-cha.

“What kind of face is that? Did I kill someone?”

However, Jaeyoon had just learned that Sieon could also kill a person with words. In the end, the lovelorn man couldn’t bear the simmering anger erupting from Sieon’s phone conversation, so he held the back of his neck and, foaming at the mouth, yelled, ‘I’ll never settle!’ Although Jaeyoon had no power to stop this man even if he stayed, he was uneasy thinking of what troubles he might stir if left by himself.

“Why… did you do that?”

Regardless of what the lovelorn man had done, if Sieon hadn’t gone overboard, things wouldn’t have come this far, so Jaeyoon’s question was laced with a bit of resentment.

“What?”

“Hitting that person.”

“You really don’t know?”

Sieon asked back.

At that moment, something fell down inside Jaeyoon with a thud.

No way, that couldn’t be…

“Well, I didn’t even get hit that much.”

Jaeyoon tried not to recall the reason why he had believed it wasn’t like that, as he handed over all of the cooled Yulmu-cha and fiddled with the empty cup as if he couldn’t even throw it away. For some reason, he became very embarrassed and shy. Sieon looked down with dissatisfaction at the phone that started ringing again, and flipped it open.

“What now? …….”

Closing the phone with a grave face, he raised his arm toward the road and stopped an empty taxi that was passing by. Then he opened the rear passenger door and pushed Jaeyoon inside.

“Go.”

He closed the door after a short goodbye, not giving Jaeyoon any time to react. It happened so quickly that Jaeyoon had no choice but to just look back at him, staring blankly at his shrinking silhouette from the backseat of the car that departed straight away.

Jaeyoon arrived home after 11 o’clock. Yoonjae was watching from his room’s window on the second floor, and when he saw the familiar shadow, he opened the window and leaned out.

“Hey, you’re late!”

Seeing the model student finally returning, Yoonjae, who appeared proud as things he’d gone out for had seemingly gone well, clung to the windowsill as the cold wind came in and waved to his old friend. But the weak hand of his friend that had gone out to confess on his first date – Yoonjae firmly believed this to be the case – indicated the results weren’t good. Paying no attention to the fact that it was late at night, Yoonjae ran out barefoot, wearing only a coat over his T-shirt. About to reach the gate, Jaeyoon showed signs of embarrassment as Yoonjae jumped out of the next-door house.

How could he shake off this quick-witted fellow?

To be honest, he wanted to vent about this pathetic situation to someone, but given who the other party involved was, Jaeyoon couldn’t breathe a word to this fellow and asked himself frustratedly, ‘Why did you have to be his cousin?’, misplacing his resentment.

“Why did you come out?”

“It seems like it didn’t go that well.”

Yoonjae, who was looking Jaeyoon over, said as if dispirited.

“… nothing special.”

“What is ‘nothing special’?”

Even if his mouth was ripped apart, he didn’t want to say that he was threatened on the main street because he was five minutes late, that he scarfed down food so expensive he felt like it was worth a fortune, or that the finale was crowned with a brawl in the parking lot which made him end up at the police station. When Yoonjae stared at Jaeyoon’s face, he hesitatingly tried to gloss over it, adding ‘Didn’t meet’ in case he might get caught.

“What, they didn’t come?”

As if he had just understood Jaeyoon’s non-refreshing feelings,2 Yoonjae frowned. And he blamed the other side that didn’t come out for his friend of ten years. Jaeyoon sighed with relief when Yoonjae easily believed him.

“Come on, why didn’t they come? Then, where are you coming from?”

“Just from here and there.”

“Have you heard from them? You didn’t come after standing there alone like a fool, did you?”

Although he thought he could avoid the other’s questions if he said they didn’t meet, Jaeyoon became overcome with frustration because of the even more persistent questioner.

“They’re busy, so we couldn’t meet.”

“What can you be busy with on the Eve?”

He tried to break off at the gate, but Yoonjae followed him. No matter what, he couldn’t stop the heart of his friend who came to comfort his dejected self who’d gotten stood up.

He took his coat off, set it on a hanger and, giving his friend who was perched on his bed a look, left the room under the pretext of washing up. A hollow face appeared in the bathroom mirror, looking like it had been severely punished after getting caught smoking by a supervisor/dean. It definitely didn’t look like the face of someone who’d come here after their first date. Jaeyoon squeezed the toothpaste onto the toothbrush and blankly stared in the mirror. It reflected an ordinary, bored, pale skinned third-year high school student without much charm, worn out after a year of preparing for his examination. It wasn’t even a cute, soft girl with aegyo3; he admitted that it was the normal, dull face of a stiff boy out of touch with love. Still, since he decided to date me, he’s being irresponsible, Jaeyoon thought.

He was also anxious that he was the only one being serious.

Granted, what Jaeyoon was thinking might not be important to Sieon. In the first place, they’d decided to date to keep his mouth shut, so all he needed to do was supervise Jaeyoon’s mouth. However, if that man had come out on a one-sided promise in the midst of a busy schedule – judging from the call, he really might not have had any time – it made him hesitate to conclude that Sieon had meant to drive him home just to play a joke on him. Recalling Sieon’s expression when he’d asked back if Jaeyoon didn’t know why he’d done it, his face was strangely sulky.

“Mulling over it alone….”

There was no need to predict. He confirmed yet again today that Sieon was a person very much like a rugby ball: you never knew where he would go. So, mulling it over alone would just be a waste of time. Next time, he’d ask everything until he fully understood.

After making his mind up, Jaeyoon brushed his teeth, rinsed his mouth hastily and rushed into his room. Yoonjae, who was lying on the bed, raised his head, but Jaeyoon ignored him and took his phone out of his coat. Worried about the other still being at the police station, Jaeyoon typed out the number with an audible ‘bikbikbik’ and carefully listened to the signal he started to hear shortly after.

[Hello.]

“Excuse me. It’s Jaeyoon.”

[Eh? Who?]

“…….”

Jaeyoon was lost for words at the voice that suddenly pretended not to know him. His face was not thick enough to say he was his lover, and he refused to say he was a fool.

“Ha Jaeyoon.”

[Sure, what is it?]

Then he heard a yell of ‘Hey! I said not to touch mine!!’ over the phone. Only then did Jaeyoon realize that the person he was talking to over the phone wasn’t Sieon. He mistook it because his voice was similar, but when he heard the original(?) voice, he told them apart easily.

‘Who is Jaeyoon?’    ‘Shut up’    ‘This jerk!! Who saved your life? How can you dare!’     ‘Someday, I’ll arrest you.’     If you happened to overhear it, the voices that alternated were so similar that you’d mistake it for a person doing a double role. 

[What?]

When he heard his blunt voice, Jaeyoon swallowed.

[If you’re not talking, Imma hang up.]

“Ex-Excuse me, you aren’t still… still there, are you?”

[You’d like it if I was?]

“N-No.”

[Got time tomorrow?]

“Eh? Time?”

The short call ended with Sieon’s ‘There’s something I forgot to tell you because it was so hectic, so come out.’ Although he was confused by the phone call that had ended in a flash, in any case, it was fortunate that he seemed to have left the police station. Turning around in relief, he was surprised by Yoonjae staring at him, so he went back into the bathroom, pretending not to notice. A hum leaked out unknowingly.

After finishing the simple, short call with Jaeyoon, Sieon immediately kicked the closed door. As if someone had been listening in on the other side, a low scream was heard. When he opened the door, Simin4 was slumped on the floor, holding Soonsoon while snickering and looking up. It was a face Sieon didn’t like the sight of.

Park Simin was Park Jeong Sieon’s older cousin. Sieon was an only child, as was Simin, and although they were cousins, they sponged off one another like actual siblings would. Their appearance was so similar that they looked like brothers, but their personalities were poles apart.

“Privacy infringement.”

“Who is it that you’re so hush about? Did you happen to get this?”

With his left pinky1 raised, Simin’s face displayed complete curiosity.

“Why don’t you just fuck off now?”

“Is that all you have to say to your hyung-nim who saved you from almost being arrested?” Don’t let up, let him have it, Simin! Power to the citizens!

Given his complacency at the police station, where he’d been dragged to after beating a man on the street, and despite the victim’s shouts of ‘I’m never going to settle!’, it was all thanks to Simin, who had decidedly hung up and come running straight away, that he was able to get released immediately. It was easier because Simin was a policeman.

He hummed and Sieon snorted.

“Don’t you need to do the tax adjustments?”

“You are the one who said you’d help with my tax, but you didn’t and left this good ‘citizen’ like a mummy.”5

He had thought of putting this mannerless cousin of his in the holding cell for at least one day, but the one to feel sad would’ve been Simin.

“Because that cretin did something bad.”

“Anyway, you owe me, so you have to do all of that.”

“You wanna say such words with that look on your face?”

Pointing to a pile of documents, Simin, who calmly spat out the homework as if it were an elementary school student’s overnight homework, smiled and cynically shot at him.

“Why did you make such a proposal if you were going to weasel out of it from the start?”

Simin threw a bunch of the documents, pretending he hadn’t heard.

Unlike Sieon, Simin was a good example of a model police officer, his face perpetually with a smile on it, having a good personality, suitable for goodwill volunteering. However, when Simin chose this profession, he faced a lot of opposition at first. He, himself had been wishing to do it for a long time, it was rewarding and he had no complaints; but, as the eldest son who was expected to take over the family business in the 3D industry, his choice of being no more than a low-level civil servant, a police officer at that, turned the family upside down. However, although he looked harmless and docile/gentle on the outside, once he made up his mind, he was more stubborn than a bull6. So, to the disappointment of the family elders that had been trying to dissuade Simin for years, they had to turn their eyes on Sieon.

Speaking of Park Jeon Sieon, if you were to tell him he should go here, he’d go up there, he was a heartless fellow who was fully committed to his pure self-centeredness – everyone nodded their heads once again at that name, thinking they named him right. However, as long as he was smart, bright and good at his job, his personality was secondary, so they made the tentative decision to hand the family business over to Sieon instead of Simin. 

But Sieon suddenly changed his career path as well, and declared that he’d be a prosecutor, all of a sudden going into law. The elders, who were thinking ‘let’s wait and see how many years you can rot away because of that difficult civil exam’, changed their minds once again when he passed it in one go, even before graduating. Since their family had been in the trading business for generations, they thought that having one or two people in the public service would also be good, so the elders started to grill Simin again. Although police officers were also public officials, it was only natural that the prosecutor’s path looked better in their eyes. Therefore, Simin, who had to play a tiring tug-of-war again, reached an agreement with the elders: he was going to do his job along with helping out the family business for five years from that point onward. If he managed to do both perfectly, they would have to acknowledge his passion for police work.

“Do it properly. Uncle7 is a meticulous man.”

Sieon had wondered where his cousin found the guts to make that offer. It was Simin’s intention to make Sieon, who constantly picked on him and kept finding faults everywhere, do the work.

“Besides, if I quit the police, wouldn’t becoming a prosecutor after suffering for so many years be in vain?”

Sieon frowned and set his gaze on the files.

TN:

1) Yulmu-cha – A tea made of roasted, powdered yulmu (grains of Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen), sometimes mixed with nuts such as walnuts. The tea, usually served hot, is also often sold through vending machines in South Korea.

2) non-refreshing feelings – He means that since Jaeyoon didn’t get to confess, he had no clear closure

3) aegyo – cuteness

4) Simin – His name literally means ‘citizen’ in Korean xD

5) You are the one who said you’d help with my tax, but you didn’t and left this good ‘citizen’ like a mummy. – With ‘citizen’ (simin), he means himself, ‘mummy’ equals to a bunch of work

6) more stubborn than a bull – lit. TL is ‘tougher than a cow’s tendon’

7) Uncle – father’s younger brother