Chapter 5

Those Bastards Aren’t Worth Dying For

You Need to Be Taught a Lesson

Even though I worked hard, the cleaning took an hour longer than scheduled before we finally finished.

The owner swallowed his anger when the woman refused to pay us.

“She says she’ll inspect everything when her husband gets home, and if there are no problems, she’ll pay us tomorrow.”

At this point, he was practically a saint.

Putting the money aside, considering the humiliation she had subjected us to, most people would have lashed out at her.

But the owner simply smiled.

“You meet all kinds of people doing this job. Just think of it as paying off some bad luck.”

“I’ve been doing this for ten years, but I’ve never met anyone like her. Uncle, are you okay? She was really rude to you.”

“I’m fine.”

I wasn’t fine.

She was a woman who lacked even the bare minimum of manners a human being should possess.

Birds of a feather flock together.

She was a perfect match for Jung Joong-sung.

Anger, revenge, hostility, and murderous intent were writhing somewhere deep inside me.

They were coiled up like snakes, ready to spring at any moment and spit their deadly venom.

“Maru, what are you thinking about? Don’t let it get to you.”

“I’m really fine.”

“People like that are just piling up bad karma for themselves. There’s no such thing as a flower that stays red forever.”

“Yes.”

We loaded the cleaning equipment into the vehicle, and I took the passenger seat.

As he drove, the owner said,

“Maru, you’re thirty-two, right?”

“Thirty-two by international age.”

“You should start thinking about marriage now.”

“I haven’t thought about it yet.”

Song Suk-ja, sitting in the back seat, chimed in.

“Uncle, there’s a nice young woman in our neighborhood. Want me to set you two up?”

“I’m really fine.”

“Why? Where are you going to find someone as hardworking and good at his job as you? You make good money, too. And your looks aren’t bad either.”

“I’ll take care of it myself.”

“I only said it because I don’t think I’d get cursed out if I introduced you to someone. I’ve watched you for a year, after all. If I were a young woman, I’d go after you.”

“Thank you just for saying that.”

Song Suk-ja teased me.

“Don’t tell me there’s something wrong with you physically?”

“What?”

“Uncle, you’re surprisingly innocent.”

“Yes.”

“Suk-ja, don’t pressure him too much. Maru probably has his own thoughts about it.”

“He’ll be forty before he knows it, then fifty. They say even a monk can’t cut his own hair, so I’m just trying to help.”

A baby abandoned on a floor.

A child abused throughout his upbringing.

An adult who lost his entire fortune to fraud.

I didn’t want to pass on genes like mine.

“Maru, if business keeps growing, you’ll have to take charge of some of it too.”

“What?”

“I advertised our building-cleaning service recently, and we’ve been getting a lot of inquiries. If we hire more people, I want you to manage them. I’ll provide you with a vehicle, too.”

“Oh! Uncle, you’re going to be a team leader?”

“You’ve watched Maru work for over a year, too.”

“I have no doubts about his skills. Congratulations, Uncle!”

I didn’t know whether it was a good thing.

As a team leader, I would have to deal directly with customers and communicate with the workers.

Could someone like me, whose interpersonal skills were practically nonexistent, really handle that?

But when I thought about my bank account, accepting seemed like the right choice.

In the year or so since I started cleaning, I had saved forty million won.

If I became a team leader, I could make more money.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Why? You should grab an opportunity when it comes. With your skills, two or three jobs a day would be nothing. You should make as much money as you can while you have the chance.”

“Yes.”

I needed to think about it.

I had to move within two years, so I did need the money.

But I wasn’t confident I could handle the job.

On the way home, I started craving beer, so I stopped by Geundaehwa Supermarket.

“Uncle! Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I’ll just take three cans of beer today. I still have cigarettes.”

I took three cans of beer from the refrigerator and looked for something to eat.

I was tired of squid, and peanuts weren’t very appealing.

Should I get beef jerky? Or almonds?

After a moment of hesitation, I picked up some almonds and snacks and headed toward the register.

A young woman was standing in front of me.

The strong scent of perfume tickled my nose.

She put two cans of beer on the counter and continued rummaging through her pockets.

“Miss, you didn’t bring any money?”

“Just a moment.”

The woman searched the front and back of her pants several times.

“You live around here? I’ve never seen you before.”

“I moved into the next alley the day before yesterday. I guess I have to go back. It’s annoying living all the way at the top of the hill.”

“I know this neighborhood is a killer climb, but I can’t give you credit when I’ve only seen you for the first time today. Go back and get the money.”

“I’m having my period, so I’m having a hard time. What should I do?”

The woman swallowed as she stared at the beer.

Did she really want it that badly?

It wasn’t much money, so I stepped in.

“Ma’am, I’ll pay for it.”

“Do you know her, Uncle?”

“No. It’s not much, so…”

“Fine. What are the chances she’ll stiff you out of ten thousand won?”

The woman put the two cans of beer into a plastic bag and handed it to the girl.

“It’s ten thousand won. Come back tomorrow and pay me. I’ll give it to this young man.”

“Yes.”

The woman left without even thanking me.

I hadn’t done it because I wanted thanks, but I couldn’t say it felt good.

I placed my beer and snacks on the counter.

“How can someone just walk away without even saying thank you?”

“Please ring these up.”

“Think of it as doing a good deed. You’ll be blessed.”

I paid and left.

What the hell?

The woman was waiting for me outside.

“Oppa! I’ll pay you back tomorrow.”

When had we become close enough for her to call me that?

And she looked about my age.

She looked me up and down before walking toward the alley on the left.

There was something unusual about the way she looked at me.

Could I describe it as moist and slippery?

The shop owner came up beside me.

“She obviously works at a bar.”

“Really?”

“You can see it all over her face. She’s dripping with sensuality. I’ve been running this store for more than a day or two. I can tell at a glance.”

“I’ll be going.”

“But she looks like you.”

I stopped walking.

“She has a prominent nose and slightly upturned eyes, so there’s a similar atmosphere. And she looks kind of depressed, too.”

Did I look depressed?

“I’ll head up.”

It wasn’t something worth worrying about.

I wasn’t free enough to obsess over comments like that.

I had climbed about halfway up the hill when two men came down toward me.

They looked familiar.

Where had I seen them?

Their faces gradually became clearer.

Strong eyebrows and prominent jaws.

They were the detectives I had briefly seen while cleaning the house where the man had died alone.

They hadn’t seen my real face because I had been wearing the mask back then.

Focus. Focus.

I repeated those words to myself several times.

The team leader approached me.

“Hello. I’m Lieutenant Jo Tae-su from Magang Police Station. Do you live around here?”

“What? Yes.”

I tried not to panic, but I had committed a crime, so I couldn’t help trembling.

“Where do you live?”

“I live up at the top.”

“Did you happen to hear any screaming or fighting last night?”

“No.”

“Do you know the blue gate?”

Jo Tae-su pointed toward the blue gate diagonally across the street.

“People don’t live up there, so I think it’s an empty house.”

“Have you ever seen someone who looks like this?”

Jo Tae-su showed me a composite sketch.

A middle-aged man with distinctive facial features.

Fortunately, there was nothing particularly similar between him and the man behind my mask.

“I only moved here recently, so I don’t think I’ve seen him.”

“Were you at home after nine o’clock last night?”

“Yes. I exercised and watched TV.”

Jo Tae-su stared closely into my eyes.

“You must have heard something.”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“If you remember anything, give us a call.”

He handed me his business card and headed downhill.

The voices of the two detectives carried up the hill.

“Who the hell do you think it was? Taking down four big guys alone means he wasn’t some ordinary guy.”

“Maybe they did something to deserve it.”

It seemed the girl hadn’t reported them.

The ones who deserved to be punished had received their punishment, so I felt no guilt.

I took the business card from my pocket and looked at it.

[Jo Tae-su

Criminal Affairs Division / Violent Crimes Team Leader

Mobile: 010-2323-XXXX

Magang Police Station: 02-858-XXXX]

Could he really catch me?

There weren’t any CCTV cameras around, so there was little chance.

Still, I needed to be careful.

I went inside and started exercising.

Exercise had become part of my routine because of the physical nature of my job.

If I wanted to make use of the mask, I needed to strengthen my body even further, so I increased the amount of exercise I did.

“Whew.”

Ramen after working up a good sweat tasted incredible.

After mixing rice into the broth and finishing it all, I felt happy.

I liked these small pleasures.

I was flipping through TV channels when I stopped at a screen surrounded by a police line.

“A female student in Sanseong City committed suicide by jumping from an apartment building. Police recovered a suicide note, but have decided not to disclose its contents to protect her privacy.”

The footage that followed left me stunned.

The girl who had taken her own life was shown kneeling and sobbing inside an elevator.

I knew that feeling all too well.

How desperately must she have wanted to live as she climbed all the way to the rooftop?

Hyung! What am I supposed to do if you die?

If Hyuk-soo hadn’t stopped me back then, I might have made the same choice as that girl.

It was suffocating.

It was painful.

Only after I finished all the beer I had bought at the supermarket, along with the soju in my refrigerator, did I finally fall asleep.

The morning cleaning was finished, and we were about to head to the next location when the owner approached me.

“Maru, you remember the apartment in Gangnam we cleaned yesterday, right?”

“Yes.”

“She says the water stains in the bathroom weren’t removed, so she won’t pay us. You need to go back and take care of it. You can go home directly from there.”

“Understood.”

Song Suk-ja became agitated.

“Boss, that woman inspected everything so thoroughly after we finished cleaning. Do you really think someone who found a speck of dust on the window wouldn’t notice bathroom water stains? She’s doing it on purpose. She wants us to clean for free.”

“Just go there, remove the water stains, and come back.”

“I’ll go.”

If I sent Song Suk-ja, I felt like she would get into a fight with the woman.

The owner had chosen me because he believed the other employees wouldn’t be able to handle the situation smoothly.

“Uncle, are you really okay? She seems to think you’re around her age, so she treats you even more harshly.”

“I’m fine. I’ll go.”

I slung the bag containing the cleaning supplies over my shoulder and headed for Gangnam.

I needed to confirm whether she really was Jung Joong-sung’s wife.

The young woman opened the front door and immediately began screaming.

“How the hell do you clean a house? I paid good money for this, and this is what I get?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll do it again.”

I put a dust cover over my socks and headed for the bathroom.

“Where are the water stains?”

“Find them behind the bathtub. I have to go to the department store, so finish within thirty minutes!”

“Understood.”

It took me five minutes to find them.

A tiny mark on the corner of the bathtub.

I applied some cleaning solution to a cloth, and it disappeared immediately.

Since she might find another excuse to complain, I checked the rest of the bathroom, including the faucet.

Everything was spotless.

“Ma’am, I’m finished.”

The woman entered the bathroom, inspected it, and then put on an arrogant expression.

“If you’re going to work, do it properly! Don’t make people tired dealing with you.”

“Yes. When will you be paying the bill?”

“Don’t rush me! I’ll transfer the money sometime today.”

“Thank you.”

As I stepped out of the bathroom, I glanced at the photograph hanging on the wall.

“Looks like you took that during your honeymoon.”

“What do you need to know that for?”

“No reason. You two look good together.”

“Just do your own job properly! You’re making me sick.”

“I’m sorry.”

I said goodbye and left.

Just then, her smartphone rang.

I listened carefully.

“Joong-sung, I’ll be there soon. They said a new product came in today, so I made a reservation. … The wedding photos are ready? Okay. I’ll get ready and come right away.”

She was definitely Jung Joong-sung’s wife.

There were two reasons why she deserved to suffer.

The sin of looking down on people who cleaned for a living.

And the sin of becoming Jung Joong-sung’s wife.

I hurried down the emergency stairs and put on the mask.