Projection Novel (Completed) - Chapter 4

The bastard finally caused trouble.

Kwon Sejin clenched her fist, recalling the last day she saw her father. Instead of hitting his face, she should have broken his legs. No, she should have just killed him. If she had, none of this would have happened…

In her belated regret, Sejin vowed. If that man ever appeared before her eyes again, she would somehow take his life.

There was an unavoidable reason why Kwon Sejin was stubbornly staying in the Shin Sa Capital building. She simply had nowhere else to go.

After her mother was dragged away, the house they returned to was already empty, and the landlord yelled at her not to come in, saying the gangster thugs had taken the security deposit. All she had was the transportation card in her pocket, and even that only had 4,000 won remaining. To make matters worse, Sejin had no relatives or friends to ask for a place to stay for a night.

In that situation, there was only one thing Sejin could do: meet her mother.

Where would she sleep? Did she have to go to school? Or earn money? What should she do now? To Sejin, whose future seemed bleak, there was only one person who could tell her the answer. Sejin didn’t know any “proper” adults who could give her answers, except for her mother.

That was why. That was why Kwon Sejin waited for four days in that hallway.

On the first day, Sejin went to the men who had dragged her mother away and asked to see her. What she got back was dismissive laughter. But Sejin didn’t back down. She sat defiantly in the hallway leading to their office, shouting to see her mother every time they passed by. There was no harvest. She was hungry. Thus, a day passed.

On the second day, one of the gangster thugs offered her a half-eaten bread, and she ignored it, thinking he took her for a beggar. After that, as if being ignored offended them personally, the men would deliberately threaten her as if to hit her every time they passed by Sejin.

She wanted to yell at them to get lost, but fearing she might get beaten, Sejin kept her mouth shut. It wasn’t that she was afraid of getting hit, but rather the hospital bills that might result. So, she could only endure it silently, curled up.

As time passed, hunger turned into agony. Drinking tap water from the bathroom, Sejin regretted refusing the bread, and that regret made her miserable.

On the third day, the hunger was much more bearable than on the second day. But she didn’t have the strength to shout to see her mother. Sejin crouched in the hallway and glared at the passing men. They no longer even looked at Sejin. Will I die before I even see mom? Kwon Sejin thought, amidst the chilling indifference.

And on the fourth day. Finally, a man appeared who answered Sejin’s stubborn demands.

The man’s presence was felt even before he showed himself. Even in the hallway, she could hear loud greetings from outside the building. A high-ranking person must be coming, Sejin thought, imagining a pot-bellied, mean-looking middle-aged man. She also vowed that if that man entered the hallway, she would scream to see her mother. She couldn’t miss this opportunity.

But footsteps sounded, and the person who actually appeared before Sejin was a tall, handsome man, like something out of a noir film. Sejin couldn’t bring herself to open her mouth in front of the man who coolly glanced at her and walked past. She merely watched his retreating figure with a blank stare.

Only after he got into the elevator did Sejin snap out of it. And she thought, No way that man. It made sense, too; if he had a sound mind, he wouldn’t have such a handsome face and be a loan shark. If she looked like that, she would immediately become a celebrity and rake in tons of money.

But unfortunately, the elevator stopped on the 3rd floor, where Shin Sa Capital was, and a while later, the bald loan shark appeared and even asked, not asked but pleaded, for Sejin to leave and not bother his “hyung-nim” who had arrived. It was clear that the man who had appeared earlier was the bald man’s “hyung-nim.”

Sejin inwardly cursed herself for judging a person solely by their appearance. For a fleeting moment, she felt truly foolish for thinking that man couldn’t be a bad person just by his face.

While she was silently cursing herself, the man appeared before Sejin again.

“Get up,” the man who told Sejin that had a face like a handsome actor from an old Hong Kong movie. And through the ID he handed her, Sejin learned the man’s name, but decided that the ID was fake. The way he unhesitatingly handed it over, and the name fit him so perfectly that it felt more like an alias, creating a sense of incongruity.

A thuggish appearance and a fake ID. How could she trust what such a man said? But Sejin had no other choice. She had waited for four days here, and he was the first man to bring up her mother. That’s why Sejin had no choice but to follow him, even though she knew he had some ulterior motive.

When she got into the car and the man tried to sexually harass her under the pretense of buckling her seatbelt, she did feel a moment of regret. But at least the man was different from the others. He seemed to have the power to help her. Just seeing the burly men standing at the building entrance bowing to him showed that. So, Sejin was able to endure and not jump out of the car, despite the man’s irritating threats mentioning her mother. She had to meet her mother. This man was Sejin’s only lifeline.

The man, who pretended to be kind with intentions that were all too obvious, had an incredibly large house. It made her feel bad, thinking he was living well and eating well with money earned by swindling others. So, Sejin decided to act a little brazenly. Since the man’s money probably came from the pockets of people like her, she thought it wouldn’t matter if she took a little.

After eating the seolleongtang the man ordered, Sejin belatedly felt a sticky discomfort on her body and went into the bathroom. She confirmed there were enough towels to last for several days and took off her clothes. As she took off her hoodie, her school uniform shirt, hidden underneath, was revealed. The shirt, with a blue name tag embroidered with “Kwon Sejin,” was the uniform of Dongseoul Boys’ High School.

‘You’re a girl, right?’

There was only one reason why Kwon Sejin equivocated at the man’s question. The man seemed to be a pervert who liked young girls. He had an insidious gaze, as if he mistook her for a girl, sweeping over her from head to toe. Sejin intended to use that misunderstanding. She detested being mistaken for a girl, but if that misunderstanding could be a stepping stone to meeting her mother, she could endure anything.

But what if he found out she was a boy later? Would he get beaten? Sejin, washing her hair which she had grown out by making excuses to her mom to save money on barber visits, thought of the man.

His hands on the steering wheel were large. His hands seemed to have many small scratches. Being hit by such a man would hurt. It would hurt far more than being hit by that awful human she didn’t even want to call father. Sejin washed herself, thinking she absolutely had to keep her gender a secret.

While washing, she also hand-washed her underwear and shirt. Sejin hung them carefully inside the shower stall where the man couldn’t see them. Although it felt sticky, she put her school uniform pants back on, and then her hoodie. The hoodie was dirtier, but she couldn’t wash it. Since she had no chest, if she only wore a thin shirt, it would quickly become obvious that she was a boy.

After washing, a heavy fatigue washed over her. She didn’t want to sleep comfortably when she didn’t know where her mom was or what she was doing, but she couldn’t fight off the overwhelming drowsiness. Sejin sat on the floor, leaning against the bed, and then dozed off.

“Can I come in?”

She woke up a long time later. At a voice from somewhere, Sejin opened her eyes. The bright room was engulfed in darkness. Realizing she had slept like a log until evening, she quickly sprang up and pulled on her hoodie. She tugged the drawstring at the end to tie a bow around her neck, and bowed her head to hide her Adam’s apple.

“I’m coming in.”

The thuggish man opened the door and entered without waiting for an answer. Sejin didn’t know he had been knocking for ten minutes. She was just extremely nervous that he, who mistook her for a young girl, was entering her room late at night.

Having nothing to use as a weapon, Sejin clutched her pillow tightly and sat on the bed. In that state, she watched the man entering, without blinking once. He was dressed as before, in a loose white cotton T-shirt and equally loose gray pants. His slender, long legs and firm chest outlined themselves beneath the thin fabric. It seemed like an intentional outfit. His intentions were dirty.

While Sejin was frowning, the man observed the room, then held out something in his hand. Curious, she looked closer and saw it was a paper bag. Inside, there was a plastic-wrapped item.

“Clothes and underwear… you know, stuff like that. Thought you wouldn’t have a change of clothes.”

“…”

Kwon Sejin looked up and stared at the man. In the dim light, the man’s face, shadowed, had such a handsome form that it made her jealous. No one would refuse the clothes from such a good-looking man, who was standing there with a casual, cool expression, inspiring admiration from anyone who saw him. Sejin felt possessed and only came to her senses after taking the bag.

Her mother used to say that handsome men come with a price. Wasn’t her terrible father the prime example of that price? Sejin, reminding herself that the actor-like man in front of her was a loan shark who had taken in a lost young girl, opened her mouth.

“Thank you.”

Perhaps, just perhaps, the man was genuinely trying to help her out of pure goodwill. But Sejin believed the world wasn’t that easy. The man definitely had an ulterior motive.

It was strange that he let her keep talking informally, even though she was much younger. If he didn’t want anything, she would have already been beaten by him several times over. While Sejin was thinking this and growing more wary, the man asked,

“What do you want for dinner? Do you have anything you like? Should I just order chicken?”

“…Just, anything…”

Sejin avoided the man’s gaze and replied, bowing her head. It was because she felt like laughing when she saw the man offering to order chicken just to win over a kid. Who falls for that kind of thing these days?

“Alright, I’ll order anything then. Come out when I call you later.”

She nodded, and the man turned around without lingering. A faint outline of a tattoo was visible through the thin T-shirt clinging to his back. As he turned the doorknob, a long, black-striped tail moved above his prominent shoulder blades. Typical gangster bastard, showing it off so blatantly.

Sejin snorted and opened the paper bag. Whatever the man’s intentions, she was grateful. Her clothes had felt quite sticky from being worn for several days.

“…”

However, that gratitude quickly faded. Sejin pulled out the wrapped clothes from the paper bag and frowned.

What the man had bought was a long-sleeved one-piece pajama with a weird character on it. And the size didn’t seem to fit at all. Sejin saw the ‘170’ mark on the packaging and tossed the clothes onto the floor.

“Is he an idiot?”

170 was a size for children. To buy clothes that a primary schooler would wear… At her age, at her height, did he really think that size made sense? Did he perhaps think that ‘170’ referred to height?

Sejin rummaged through the bag with an irritated hand. She was looking for a T-shirt or something similar. Soon, she found packaged underwear too, but even that wasn’t something she could wear. The dainty lace-decorated panties with white ribbons were pink, yellow, and light purple. Then, upon finding a beige bra with hearts on it, Sejin couldn’t stand it anymore and threw what was in her hand onto the floor.

Everything was just trash. Sejin cursed inwardly and pushed the fallen pajamas and underwear aside. It was better to just keep wearing what she had been wearing for days.

Feeling downcast, Sejin sat on the floor, leaning against the bed, curled up in thought.

Can this pervert really help me meet my mom? His mind seems to be full of nothing but dirty thoughts, does he really have the ability to grant my request?

Suspicion surged, but there was nothing she could do. He was the only one who had even brought up her mother, so she had no choice but to wait with hope. Sejin sighed and rested her chin on her hand. For the past two days, perhaps due to exhaustion, she hadn’t thought about anything, but after eating something and getting some sleep, a suffocating feeling slowly crept up.

She wondered what Ehwa-gak was, and what her mother was doing. She wanted to know if her mother was also starving, if her work was hard, and what she should do next. But no matter how much she thought alone, there was no answer.

It would be nice if I could at least hear her voice, but her phone couldn’t make or receive calls, and her mother’s phone, which she had tried calling numerous times from a public phone, was also off. It was a bleak situation. Sejin buried her face in her hands due to the painful thoughts and the naturally surging resentment. Her small lips, pressed against her palms, poured out harsh curses.

She was like that for a long time, until at some point, a knock and the man’s voice came.

“Come out for dinner.”

Shamelessly, a sudden hunger surged at the mention of food. Sejin sighed and got up. Following the man into the living room, she saw two boxes of chicken on the table where they had eaten seolleongtang earlier. The sweet and spicy aroma stung her nose, and her mouth watered. Sejin swallowed hard and approached the sofa as if possessed. While she sat down, the man went to the kitchen and took out a microwaveable instant rice.

“You eat rice, right?”

She nodded quickly, and the man placed a bowl of instant rice in front of Sejin. It must be hot, he said, holding the side and even peeling off the plastic. Then, he took out wrapped chopsticks and even poured her a glass of cola. Kwon Sejin stared blankly at the man’s profile as he nonchalantly took care of her, then soon turned her gaze away.

She didn’t need to be grateful for things like this. The men from Shin Sa Capital had dragged her mother away, shoving a contract that her mother had never signed. Since the man was revered by them, he was just as much trash as they were. Perhaps even worse.

So, this was all disgusting hypocrisy and pretense. Thinking that, Sejin opened her mouth. She wielded her chopsticks with the intention of taking as much as she could from the man while she was here. The chicken was delicious.

After dinner, Sejin returned to her room to rest. She had thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep properly, being in someone else’s house and suspicious of the man’s intentions, but to her surprise, drowsiness overwhelmed her.

Sejin, who had slept like a log, slept so deeply that she didn’t even know the man had knocked on her door. Then, at some point, she startled awake, and it was already early evening of the next day. Sejin was surprised to realize she had slept for nearly twenty hours. Could she really be this vulnerable? She was appalled by her own indifference.

Overwhelmed by a belated hunger and thirst, Sejin first went to the living room to find water. And she found the man sprawled like a corpse on the sofa, taking a nap. Sejin stood about ten paces away and watched him.

The man’s limp right hand precariously held a remote control, and his left hand rested on his stomach. His white skin was visible through his slightly disheveled T-shirt. His long legs were crossed over the sofa, with only one bent, causing his pants to ride up and expose his ankle.

He was tall, so she thought everything about him would be large, but his bone structure was surprisingly delicate. A faint pink blush tinged his protruding ankle bone, and the blue veins on the top of his foot stretched straight as if drawn with a ruler. Tall, with a rough way of speaking and a swaggering attitude. The man, who had only seemed like a handsome gangster thug, unexpectedly had a neat side to him. Sejin unconsciously stared at it.

“Uncle isn’t sleeping.”

Then, at the sudden voice, Sejin flinched like a child caught doing something wrong. He had opened his eyes at some point, and his long, sleepy eyes were directed at her. The man stared blankly at Sejin, then yawned and sat up. His low, husky voice came out.

“Why do you sleep so much?”

“…Because I’m tired.”

It was only natural, as she hadn’t slept properly for four days. She didn’t even know she would sleep for so long. At Sejin’s reply, the man roughly nodded, got up, and said, “Sit.” At his words, Sejin immediately sat down on the sofa where the man had just been lying. The warmth remained, making her bottom feel warm. Sejin felt a strange discomfort and moved to the end of the sofa when a voice came from the kitchen.

“Want a sandwich?”

“…Yeah.”

He nodded, and the man returned to his seat with the packaged sandwich he had set aside for Sejin. As she ate the sandwich and drank the milk he handed her, Sejin peeked at him through the turned-off TV screen.

“Why aren’t you wearing the clothes I bought you?”

Sejin quickly devoured the sandwich, crumpling the sauce-stained wrapper and gulping down the remaining milk, when the man asked. Recalling the pink dress pajamas, Sejin choked, coughing for a long time before turning her head away.

The man was looking at her with a genuinely curious expression. How could I wear those ridiculous clothes? She wanted to retort, but Sejin avoided his gaze and replied. There was no benefit in irritating the man.

“…The size doesn’t fit. It’s for kids…”

“For kids?”

At her words, the man narrowed his eyes and scanned Sejin from head to toe. Before she could even feel uncomfortable from his gaze, he threw another question.

“What’s your weight? I told them to get something for a kid about 170cm and 45kg.”

“…”

At that, Sejin stared blankly at the man, dumbfounded. She wondered what he was talking about, but unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be joking.

It was a relief that it was a mistake. However, Sejin felt her pride stung. Though she was short, she was still in her growth spurt and well over 50kg, so what was this talk of 45kg?

He clearly said she was eighteen, but did that height and weight make sense? Sejin soon retorted in a brusque tone.

“I’m 58kg.”

“What…?”

You are? The man scanned Sejin again, as if surprised. His expression seemed to say, how can such a small thing weigh so much? Sejin’s pride was hurt a second time, and she bit down hard, resisting the urge to jump up from her seat. She wanted to take off her hoodie and show him how thick her bones were, but she couldn’t, since she was pretending to be a girl, which frustrated her.

Sejin let out a short sigh and said in a sulky voice,

“Just lend me something you used to wear. Like a T-shirt and some elastic-waist shorts…”

“They’ll be a bit big, won’t they?”

“They’ll fit that much!”

Sejin finally couldn’t stand the man’s indifferent reply and retorted. It was annoying enough that she was already small, but being treated like a child continuously made her feel bad. However, as soon as she shouted that, her heart sank.