A Taste to Spit Out - Chapter 19
The car keeps driving deeper into the mountains, further and further into the mountains. It feels like we are sneaking into a cave where dirty sludge is sloshing around.
“You’re going to see your father for the first time in a while. How do you feel?”
Thud, a thick finger brushed against my cheek.
Kang Yeol-jin was fully armored in an expensive suit, even in this heat. He was hiding the tattoos that were stuck all over his body and stuffing the menacing muscles into a shirt, wearing a human disguise.
What is it that you really want?
When you look at the shell, it’s impossible to be more obvious about what you desire. Kang Yeol-jin was very skilled at hiding his filth inside.
Even though I knew that better than anyone, when I looked into those eyes, I couldn’t help but be thrown into utter confusion.
…Do you really love me?
At that moment, the car gradually started to slow down. I withdrew my gaze from Kang Yeol-jin, reflected in the car window. Although it was an unpaved dirt road, he drove smoothly, without even making the car bounce once. Sitting still made my back itch with restlessness.
Clunk, Kang Yeol-jin got out of the driver’s seat. Not long after, the passenger door opened.
“We’re here.”
He placed his large hand on top of my head, protecting it from getting hurt.
He walked down the mountain path with great skill. Passing mound after mound, until he finally stopped at one spot.
A tombstone caught my eye, next to a grave that looked like it had been made recently because of the short grass—a grave shaped like an overturned bowl of rice.
[Jeong Chi-soo]
It really was my father’s grave.
“Sigh…”
I let my arms drop down. He really passed away. He’s really beneath this ground.
That place should have been mine. Why am I standing here on both feet, while my father is lying there? Why does he look so peaceful?
Kang Yeol-jin buttoned up his suit one by one and carefully laid down the bouquet he had brought. He poured liquor around the grave, with precision as sharp as a blade.
While the faithful dog, still devoted to its master even in death, diligently licked its master’s feet, I merely existed there, like a ghost.
“…….”
I didn’t add any words. I couldn’t tell if the memorial was for my father or for my past self.
Then, as we walked back down toward the start of the path, something different caught my eye.
From the small container box at the entrance, a dog barked, “Woof, woof.”
In front of it, a bald man was crouching down, pouring dog food into a large rubber basin.
“Do you want to say hello?”
I slowly nodded. Soon, the car softly came to a stop with a smooth glide. Clunk, Kang Yeol-jin got out of the driver’s seat and came over to open the door for me.
I slowly got out and approached the container box.
“Mister…”
When I called out, sensing my presence, he quickly turned his head. Startled, I flinched and stepped back.
This man, whose one eye socket was empty, was the caretaker of the grave. He guarded the ancestral burial ground of my family.
Even though I was the one who greeted him, the one eye he had was locked onto something behind me. His long fingers pointed menacingly at Kang Yeol-jin.
“That, that, that butcher of a man!”
The dogs, now equally agitated, started barking wildly. Woof, woof, woof, woof! The dog food spilled over, and clang, clang! The sound of chains being pulled tight filled the air.
And finally.
The caretaker threw the bowl of dog food he was holding straight at Kang Yeol-jin.
“Take this, you ghostly bastard! Eat this!”
Splat, filth splattered everywhere. A nauseating stench filled the air as entrails, fish heads, blood, and all kinds of vile things oozed out.
The sticky mess ran down Kang Yeol-jin’s broad chest, leaving a trail.
“Do you even know where you are? How dare you come here!”
A chunk of entrails slithered and crossed over Kang Yeol-jin’s sharp nose, squirming and sliding down his skin.
As I stood watching, my heart involuntarily pounded harder. The old Kang Yeol-jin would have immediately cut off that man’s head and tossed it into a dog bowl.
He was like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at any moment.
But.
The one Kang Yeol-jin was glaring at through his damp hair wasn’t the caretaker—it was me. In a fleeting moment, our eyes met. Our gazes locked.
“…….”
So, in that fleeting moment, the emotion I read in Kang Yeol-jin’s eyes was none other than contempt.
Contempt, huh.
Even for this thug, who had swung his sledgehammer-like fists in back alleys, beating people to a pulp, and at times charging without any regard for filth—did such a crude emotion like that wriggle inside him?
He pulled a handkerchief from his pants pocket and wiped his face.
“…You bastard.”
Without hesitation, he ruthlessly threw the handkerchief aside and disappeared. Without a word to me, he spun around and walked away, his back resembling that of a wounded beast, bitten by an enemy.
