Projection Novel (Completed) - Chapter 3

Outside the building, the Lamborghini was parked in the same spot as before. Cheon Sejoo frowned, seeing the plastic cup still lying on the sidewalk next to it. He had gestured to the burly man standing guard at the building entrance to clean up the trash, but the clueless fellow bent down and shouted,

“Sorry, Hyung-nim!”

“…”

Damn it, I should make them stop calling me Hyung-nim. He glared irritably at the man, then turned his head and felt a gaze from beside him. Cheon Sejoo noticed undisguised disgust in the child’s eyes as she passed him and looked towards the man. He didn’t particularly care. It was natural. The child had every reason to hate them.

He pushed the child into the passenger seat, then walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat. But as he started the engine, he saw that the child was struggling with the seatbelt.

“Just pull the one behind you and plug it in below.”

At Cheon Sejoo’s words, the child pulled the belt from behind her shoulder. But she seemed not to know where to plug it in, and the belt kept going towards her side. It was a common sight for people seeing a four-point seatbelt for the first time. Cheon Sejoo, watching the child’s attempts, told her, “Not there,” but even with the added instruction, the child didn’t know where the belt should go. Finally, frustrated, he sighed and leaned over.

“I’ll do it. Give it to me.”

The child hesitated and handed him the belt. Cheon Sejoo pulled the clip, extended the strap, and reached his hand between the child’s legs to insert it into the buckle.

“Don’t…!”

At the sudden, sharp cry, he flinched and straightened his upper body. A chilling silence fell inside the car. Facing the gaze of the child who was glaring at him with a face about to cry, Cheon Sejoo finally realized that the child had misunderstood his actions. A shiver ran down his spine.

“Sorry, the buckle is here.”

Feeling like a piece of human trash, he hastily spread his legs and pointed to the seatbelt buckle resting between his thighs. Despite confirming the buckle’s location, the child did not easily lower her guard. Cheon Sejoo watched the still fierce-faced child awkwardly tugging at the belt, and only started the engine after a click sound. He apologized to the child once more and put his foot on the accelerator. He was already exhausted before even starting.

“What do you want for lunch? You haven’t eaten in days, have you?”

Cheon Sejoo, thinking he needed to do something about the cold atmosphere, spoke in a supposedly gentle voice. The child didn’t respond immediately. Cheon Sejoo also didn’t press for an answer, as he could somewhat understand how the child in his car felt.

Still, compared to her sharp attitude, she got into the car easily. From her gaze, he had expected a long struggle…

The traffic light turned red, and taking advantage of the stop, Cheon Sejoo glanced at the child. Looking at her pretty face, beautiful enough to make him turn back even after passing by, he suddenly realized he didn’t know her name and asked.

“What’s your name?”

“…Kwon Sejin.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

At his compliment, Sejin glared at Cheon Sejoo again with a cold gaze. Like a hedgehog, she bristled at every word, making it impossible to even compliment her carelessly. Cheon Sejoo pretended not to notice her gaze and stepped on the accelerator again.

Silence filled the car. It was about 10 minutes after they started that he heard Sejin’s voice again.

“…I don’t have money to eat.”

He wondered what that sudden remark meant. Then, realizing it was an answer to his earlier question, Cheon Sejoo smiled faintly. He turned his head, looked at Sejin, and said,

“Uncle will buy it for you.”

“…No, thanks.”

The child expressed refusal, but Cheon Sejoo dismissed her words with a laugh, thinking it was just out of politeness. He tapped the steering wheel with his fingertip, contemplating. She hadn’t eaten in days, so should he give her porridge? Or something hearty like seolleongtang (ox bone soup)? After thinking, he decided it was better to ask directly and opened his mouth.

“Porridge or seolleongtang? Either way.”

“I said I’m not eating.”

He thought he had asked gently, but the reply was a cold refusal. At the child’s prickly attitude, Cheon Sejoo stepped on the brake and stared at Sejin. A chilly face stared back at him. He felt the presence of the incredibly high wall the child had built up.

Suddenly feeling a headache, Cheon Sejoo pulled over to the roadside and unbuckled his seatbelt. He fiddled with a cigarette, then simply put his hand down and asked, looking at Kwon Sejin,

“Why aren’t you eating?”

“…I don’t want to be indebted to someone like you.”

Her words were quite audacious. She was already riding in his car, yet she was so defiant. Instead of begging him to buy her even one meal, she was spouting words without knowing her own situation. Cheon Sejoo smiled silently. On one hand, it was amusing that even to a child he had just met less than 10 minutes ago, he appeared to be trash.

“What kind of person am I?”

He thought for a moment, then quietly asked Sejin again. There was a sense of pressure in his low voice. Only then did Sejin realize she had misspoken, and she closed her mouth with an awkward expression.

Glimpse, her transparent eyes scanned Cheon Sejoo’s face. His smooth lips curved upwards, but his cool eyes weren’t smiling at all. As their eyes met, Sejin gnawed at her lower lip, then soon apologized in a subdued voice,

“I misspoke. You don’t have to buy me food. I’m not hungry. Just… please help me meet my mom…”

At her quick surrender, Cheon Sejoo gazed beside him. However, unlike her seemingly fearful voice, a rebellious spirit still lingered in Sejin’s eyes. He could see her forcing herself to humble herself within her obvious gaze.

Cheon Sejoo felt pity at her attitude. He was sorry, but he truly had no intention of helping her that far. Cheon Sejoo just planned to take Sejin out, keep her away from Han Jonghyun, feed her, and send her back. He was hesitant to do more than that because there was someone who kept coming to his mind.

But it was pitiful to see a child humble herself and give in with the thought of meeting her mom. It was pathetic to see a child who had to bow her head even to a trashy human like him… His heart wavered.

“Do you want to see your mom?”

At Cheon Sejoo’s low question, Sejin subtly nodded.

Actually, letting them meet once wouldn’t be difficult. Ehwa-gak was not a place he didn’t know, and there were people who could grant his request.

He felt it was meddling, but he worried that if he said he had no intention of helping that much now, the child would be extremely disappointed. Isn’t it unnecessary to incur someone’s resentment over something trivial? Cheon Sejoo convinced himself and opened his mouth.

“Then you should listen to Uncle. How can you say ‘someone like you’ when you don’t know what I might do to your mom?”

“…I didn’t mean it.”

“Uncle’s not an old geezer. I’m even letting you get away with speaking informally. But talking like that isn’t right, is it? Don’t you agree?”

At Cheon Sejoo’s cool reprimand, Sejin bit her lip. A cold silence descended in the car. Sejin seemed to have been choked by Cheon Sejoo’s threatening words, staying silent for a while, then soon glared at Cheon Sejoo with venomous eyes and asked,

“Can you really make us meet?”

It was a question full of distrust. Cheon Sejoo smiled without a word and started the engine again. As he stepped on the accelerator and headed home, he said to Sejin,

“I’m the only one there who can help you. Porridge or seolleongtang. Choose.”

Sejin didn’t answer immediately. She looked at Cheon Sejoo, who was driving, gauging if his words were true, then finally realizing she had no choice, she leaned back against the seat dejectedly and opened her mouth.

“Seolleongtang. With somyeon (thin noodles)…”

“…”

Cheon Sejoo glanced sideways and chuckled at her rather audacious remark. However, the one who made the order seemed to have said it without much thought, just staring blankly out the window. Cheon Sejoo nodded, acknowledging her choice, and seized the opportunity at a traffic light to place the order. And on the way home, he considered what to do about the child’s situation.

Taking the child to Ehwa-gak to meet her mother wouldn’t be difficult. But what then? He couldn’t just abandon a homeless child and leave. Ehwa-gak wouldn’t take in an extra mouth to feed when they were already struggling to pay off debts, and even if by some miracle they did take Sejin in, it was in the mountains of Gyeonggi Province, close to Seoul, making it an unsuitable place for her to attend school.

Tap, tap, Cheon Sejoo tapped the steering wheel, thinking.

Children without a home or parents to care for them immediately had to go to a protective facility like an orphanage. So, after letting her meet her mom, should I send Kwon Sejin there? Cheon Sejoo frowned, recalling the Angel Orphanage where he grew up. He knew that the Mother Superior would take her in if he asked, but he hesitated to face her. It had been five years since he had deliberately avoided contact. He had no face to ask for her help now. And he didn’t even know if there was a place available at the orphanage…

What started as a brief moment of pity was turning out to be more complicated than he thought. Is this the right thing to do? Cheon Sejoo looked at Kwon Sejin’s profile, who hadn’t once glanced at him, and suddenly asked her,

“How old are you?”

From the way she spoke, she seemed older than he had initially estimated. When she was crouched, her body looked very small, so he had guessed she was only about 15, but thinking about it again, she was quite tall for a girl her age.

But there was no answer to the simple question. Cheon Sejoo pulled up the corners of his lips and simply urged her.

“Answer.”

He had to drop the fake gentleness. She didn’t seem like a child who would listen to soft words and coaxing. At Cheon Sejoo’s cold voice, Kwon Sejin finally replied in a sulky tone,

“Eighteen.”

As expected, she wasn’t fifteen. But he hadn’t realized she was such a grown-up girl. Cheon Sejoo, momentarily flustered, muttered like an old man, “Good for you.”

Ten minutes later, the two of them parked the car and got out. Soon, the elevator arrived, and they went up to the 41st floor. As he opened the front door, he saw that Kwon Sejin looked very nervous. It was understandable, as she had followed a man she didn’t know. Cheon Sejoo, not wanting to provoke her, entered the house, keeping a good distance from Sejin.

“Come this way.”

Cheon Sejoo’s house interior was almost empty. The only furniture in the living room was a TV, a sofa, and a small table in front of it. There wasn’t even a chair at the kitchen table. Kwon Sejin busily looked around the space, which hardly looked like a place where someone lived. It seemed like this was her first time in such a house; she pretended not to be, but she was absorbed in sightseeing. Cheon Sejoo chuckled, watching Sejin, and stretched out his arm, pointing to the sofa.

“I ordered seolleongtang, so sit down and wait.”

Kwon Sejin silently went and sat where he pointed. The child, awkwardly perched on the sofa, had a face full of curiosity and displeasure. It was as if she was thinking, this loan shark bastard lives in a nice house with money he swindled from others.

Cheon Sejoo left Sejin and went into his room to change clothes. He usually walked around almost naked at home, but he couldn’t do that, so he put on a T-shirt and sweatpants. When he took off his shirt, the hickey on his neck was more visible, but he couldn’t keep the shirt on, so he just came out as he was.

He crossed the living room barefoot and headed for the guest room, furthest from his own room. It was where Doyoon sometimes came to sleep over, and a quick glance showed it was clean and didn’t need tidying up.

Cheon Sejoo took out a new blanket and pillow from the walk-in closet attached to the room, placed them on the bed, and then came out. Just then, the intercom rang from the lobby.

“Thank you. Have a good day.”

He opened the door and went out to the entrance to receive the food. He had ordered seolleongtang along with dumplings. Cheon Sejoo carried the bags and placed them on the table in front of the sofa.

“What do you want to eat?”

One was regular size, the other was large. At his question, Kwon Sejin chose the regular size, as if to incur as little debt to him as possible. Seeing the child cautiously open the lid, Cheon Sejoo also returned with a bowl and scooped about half of his own seolleongtang into it.

For a while, only the sounds of eating echoed in the large living room. Sejin had good eating habits. She ate quietly, without making loud noises with her spoon and chopsticks.

His stomach, which had been empty from only drinking coffee, slowly filled up. He put down his spoon before Sejin and went to the refrigerator to get a beer. He emptied about half of the small can in one go, then opened his mouth. He had a lot to say to the child.

“You have to go to Ehwa-gak on Wednesday. You can’t just go and meet her anytime. Stay at this house until then.”

Sejin, who had raised her head at his words, had a complex expression. Why are you telling me this now? Are you really going to take me? She stared at Cheon Sejoo with a face full of distrust, doubt, and bewilderment. Cheon Sejoo looked into the child’s eyes, which held the colors of autumn, and asked for confirmation,

“Have you been to your house?”

“I’ve been there. …There’s nothing.”

Sejin’s voice grew softer towards the end. Kwon Sejin stopped eating, her appetite seemingly gone, and bowed her head deeply, looking down at her feet on the carpet. Her slumped shoulders looked pitiful. She muttered in a way that would make anyone looking at her feel a sense of guilt,

“You don’t have to concern yourself… worry about things like that. Just help me meet my mom…”

Perhaps the earlier lecture had worked, as she didn’t blurt out something like, “Don’t interfere.” However, at her plea to just let her meet her mom, Cheon Sejoo finished the rest of his beer and rested his chin on the armrest.

Cheon Sejoo himself wanted to do just that. He wanted to send Sejin to Ehwa-gak to see her mom, then simply stop caring. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Sejoo thought for a moment, then nodded and replied,

“Alright, so while you’re in this house, just answer well.”

“…”

At his deliberately sharp words, Kwon Sejin’s sullen expression instantly changed, and she glanced at Cheon Sejoo with an irritated face. The change was baffling, but it was still better than her just staring at her toes. He continued to ask questions to assess Sejin’s condition.

“Since you don’t have a home, you won’t have clothes, and what about school? Your uniform?”

“I’m wearing it…”

Kwon Sejin mumbled and then replied. In her words, Cheon Sejoo narrowed his eyes and scrutinized the child’s appearance. Through the black hoodie and pale nape of her neck, an old shirt collar was visible. What he had thought were just cotton pants now looked like school uniform pants. Do girls wear pants these days? Cheon Sejoo thought, then suddenly felt a sense of incongruity and scanned Kwon Sejin.

He hadn’t noticed it earlier because she was wearing a hood, but now he saw that her hair was shorter than he expected. On top of that, her husky voice, school uniform pants, and an attitude that wasn’t intimidated by adult men.

Cheon Sejoo instantly wondered, Is this kid a boy? Come to think of it, he seemed to recall boys also being given the name Sejin. She didn’t look taller than 170cm, but there were many short men…

No way…

Cheon Sejoo, who had been gazing at her delicate features that simply didn’t look like a boy’s, suddenly felt Sejin’s gaze as if he were a pervert and turned his eyes to the window. Then, the next moment, he couldn’t resist asking,

“You are a girl, right?”

“…”

Kwon Sejin didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she looked at Cheon Sejoo with eyes that seemed to view him as human trash, then coldly retorted,

“If I were a boy, would you kick me out? What I said earlier wasn’t a joke. If you do anything bad to me… I won’t let you off.”

If she was going to say something like that, she shouldn’t have followed him into this house in the first place. Cheon Sejoo frowned, then realized Sejin hadn’t properly answered his question and asked again.

“Are you a girl?”

“C-can’t you tell by looking…?”

The child’s eyes quickly turned red as she shouted, her cheeks flushed at his cold question. She looked as if she had been insulted, a humiliated expression. It didn’t seem made up. Cheon Sejoo wondered if he had gone too far, given that she was at an age sensitive about appearance, and quickly apologized.

“I’m sorry. Uncle is a bit too suspicious.”

“…”

At his apology, Kwon Sejin shot Cheon Sejoo a sharp glare and then turned her head away. Cute. Cheon Sejoo gazed at the child, whose neck was red all the way up, then got up from his seat. He pointed to the room at the end of the hallway and said,

“There are blankets and stuff in the room at that end. Rest there after you finish eating. Let’s talk about other things over dinner later.”

“…You’ll buy dinner too?”

Even at eighteen, there was a cute side to her. Cheon Sejoo swallowed a laugh at her words, spoken with downcast eyes as if she were shameless.

“I’ll buy you chicken. Go inside and get some sleep.”

Sejin merely nodded silently. Cheon Sejoo looked down at Sejin’s empty bowl, then pushed the seolleongtang he had scooped half of towards her. “Eat that too if you’re still hungry,” he said, then turned and headed for his room.

Cheon Sejoo closed the door behind him, ran a hand over his face, and sat on the bed. He reached out, took a cigarette from the bedside table drawer, and lit it. He leisurely smoked, like someone with nothing else to do but smoke, then lay down on the mattress and picked up his phone.

“Yes, Team Leader.”

Moon Seonhyuk answered the phone before it even fully rang. Cheon Sejoo felt the noisy background sounds slowly fade away. It seemed he had moved to a quieter place. Cheon Sejoo waited for him, then stubbed out the cigarette, which had burned close to the filter, in the ashtray. Covering his eyes with his dry palms, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Where are you?”

“Still at the office.”

“It’s Saturday, and you’re not off work. You must be done with everything.”

“Kim Donggil said he’s going to catch some gamblers tonight, so I was thinking of going with him.”

At his words, Cheon Sejoo chuckled faintly. Debt collection wasn’t Moon Seonhyuk’s job. He was merely volunteering to be a supervisor in advance, in case the kids caused trouble again and created more work for him. Cheon Sejoo lowered his hand, rolled onto his side, and looked at the Han River visible outside the window, saying,

“Donggil handles his work well, so leave him be. Do me a favor. I’ll give you some pocket money.”

“It’s fine. Just tell me what the errand is.”

“Buy some clothes. Not for me… for a girl about 170cm tall.”

How much does she weigh? Cheon Sejoo recalled Kwon Sejin in his mind. Her face was small, and her hands and legs were all bone. She looked tiny enough to be carried with one hand. So…

“Her weight is about… 30kg…?”

Cheon Sejoo, having uttered that, immediately realized it was absurd and laughed in disbelief. He didn’t know why Sejin always seemed so small to him, but even though he couldn’t see her well with the hood on, she had bones and flesh, so she had to weigh well over 30kg anatomically.

“No, about 45kg.”

Women generally had thin bones, so if her neck and wrists were that slender, she probably had a very thin build even under her clothes. At Cheon Sejoo’s words, Seonhyuk grudgingly asked back,

“…Are you perhaps talking about the kid who was downstairs?”

“Yeah.”

Moon Seonhyuk had witnessed Cheon Sejoo saving a middle school girl who was being beaten in an alleyway before. What he was thinking about his boss’s meddling, Seonhyuk was silent for a moment, then replied,

“Women’s clothes… I don’t really know the sizes.”

“Just go to the mart and buy some. Something she can wear at home for a bit. Pajamas and underwear… something like that.”

“When you say underwear…”

“Panties and that, the top part…”

Both men fell silent simultaneously. Cheon Sejoo, feeling awkward for no reason even though no one else was there, awkwardly caressed his cheek and recalled Sejin’s appearance from earlier. Her chest… even with the hoodie on, it seemed flat. A-cup…? At his softly whispered words, Seonhyuk cleared his throat and replied,

“Yes, I understand. I’ll call you again when I’m at the mart, Team Leader.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

The call ended, and Cheon Sejoo closed his eyes, intending to take a nap. Then, the thought of Ehwa-gak made him frown, and he picked up his phone again. He found the contact and called the number saved as ‘Bastard.’ Unlike Moon Seonhyuk, ‘Bastard’ answered only after two missed calls. A half-hearted reply came.

“What?”

“Could you do me a favor?”

But click, the call ended as soon as he finished speaking. Cheon Sejoo muttered a small curse and called him again. After a long ringing tone, the other party answered once more.

“Chae Beomjun.”

He called out his name as soon as it connected, and again, click, the call ended. Haa, a deep sigh escaped Cheon Sejoo. He pressed his forehead to suppress his irritation and dialed again. This time, he didn’t speak first even after the call connected. Slowly, as if controlling his temper, he breathed, then finally opened his mouth.

“Team Leader Chae.”

“What?”

Only then, with the polite title, did a normal response come back.

Chae Beomjun was a person who worked under Shin Gyoyeon along with Cheon Sejoo, and could be called Shin Gyoyeon’s closest confidant. They weren’t close, but Cheon Sejoo had promised Sejin that he would let her meet her mom because he was confident that Chae Beomjun would grant his seemingly trivial request.

However, he couldn’t help but feel dirty and petty about being treated like a superior just for using a polite title. Cheon Sejoo gave a middle finger to his phone and spoke on speakerphone.

“I have someone I need to meet at Ehwa-gak. Could you talk to them?”

“Who does Team Leader Cheon have to meet there? I thought you didn’t know anyone there. Did you perhaps get a new boyfriend there?”

He ignored Chae Beomjun’s sarcastic remarks and continued,

“There’s a woman who went into Shin Sa to pay off a debt this time, and her child wants to meet her mom just once. Could you help us out just this once?”

“Ah… Mom? Is she pretty? Then I’ll think about it.”

“…”

One might expect him to ask about the circumstances of this sudden babysitting, but Chae Beomjun only asked about what interested him. Cheon Sejoo looked down at his phone with a pathetic gaze. It was lamentable that there was no one who could grant his request except for a scumbag who didn’t care about gender or age as long as they were pretty. Cheon Sejoo replied in a disinterested voice,

“Since the kid is pretty, her mom must be pretty too. Are you going to do it or not?”

“I can’t just do it. If you call me hyung, I’ll do it.”

“Hyung? My ass.” He scoffed at the preposterous suggestion.

There was a time when he had wanted to call Chae Beomjun “hyung.” But after being betrayed, or something close to it, by him a few years ago, he had never considered him a brother. Chae Beomjun was a man whose mind was solely consumed by thoughts of sex.

He clamped his mouth shut, avoiding a reply. As he secretly lowered the speakerphone volume, he heard Chae Beomjun’s whispering voice, as if he hadn’t expected an answer anyway.

“- Alright, anyway. You’re asking me for a favor, how can I refuse? I’ll talk to Ji-won about it. So, Team Leader Cheon, if you’re not busy today, how about we…”

The bedroom slowly grew quiet, and then silence fell. Cheon Sejoo confirmed that the call had dragged on before finally disconnecting, and then closed his eyes. A belated wave of fatigue washed over him.