A Taste to Spit Out - Chapter 22
You were the one who spat the harshest insults. I would pull out the dirty intentions hiding in your eyes and laugh at you.
“…Because it’s too dangerous for your weak body.”
I pressed my eyes into his large hand. The mouth visible beneath his palm spoke.
“Because you’re in danger.”
“Me?”
I relaxed the corners of my mouth and let out a small laugh.
“Why would I be in danger?”
Did you think I would even commit suicide because of that? I asked, but Kang Yeol-jin couldn’t give me any answer. It really felt like I was watching a ridiculously funny comedy movie.
“That was meant to stab you.”
That sharp statement cut through the air, spreading coldly through the living room. Kang Yeol-jin’s thick arm dropped down.
It was an empty gaze.
“It was just a joke thrown out.”
That was always what you did to me. I limped into the art studio.
Not long after, I heard a loud sound from the door.
Kang Yeol-jin didn’t follow. For some reason, it felt like I had won against him for the first time, and I became a little pleased.
Could there be any clues here?
Trapped in the dim art studio, I touched each canvas one by one. Was there something engraved on the brush? I groped around, running my thumb over them, but nothing came up.
…And then what I grasped again was a cellphone hidden behind the canvas.
I took it out again and turned it on. A white light enveloped my face, and I began to dig into the phone as if I were chasing something.
There must be something here. It had been a whole two years.
But.
“Uh…?”
A familiar app flashed before my eyes. What is this? I had never used it before, but I definitely knew what it was for.
It was the red-eyed watcher that had been chasing after me.
“Don’t waste your strength unnecessarily; do you think Congressman Jeo doesn’t know where you’re hiding?”
It was none other than an app my father used to monitor me. With this, I was right in the palm of his hand, no matter where I was.
Even if I was at a bookstore or went to an internet café, or if I discarded my phone and bag and buried myself deep in a dark mountain…
My father would find me immediately without the slightest delay.
Beep, beep. When I got close to someone, a siren-like notification sound would ring out.
That sound still lingered in my ears, almost like an auditory hallucination.
I hated it so much… So why was it installed on this phone? Did I have something to pursue?
“..…”
I cautiously pressed the app. My heart raced wildly, pounding in my chest.
Then, a red arrow sparkled and emitted light on a yellow map.
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.
Where is this…?
It wasn’t too far from my house in Pyeongchang-dong, but it was a place I couldn’t gauge at all.
The location was somewhere I had never seen before. I brought my thumb and index finger together around the flashing arrow, then pushed them apart to zoom in.
The screen expanded. The spot where the arrow was pinned down was a junkyard in Jamsil.
“A junkyard…?”
Did I know anyone who would be at a junkyard? But no matter how hard I tried to think, nothing came to mind.
After all, I had no relationships that could be called friends. Who exactly was the person I should have been chasing?
“Oh, but….”
Even after watching for a while, the light remained still, unmoving in its place. With my memories having vanished, I couldn’t be sure of anything.
I was just incredibly curious.
Why on earth had I installed this horrifically disliked location tracker on my phone?
Whatever it was, the thought that I had to check it right away pierced through my mind like a bullet.
The moonlight streaming through the window cast a pale glow on the phone. I gripped it tightly.
I need to find out. I’ll go to the junkyard by myself. Then I’ll soon know what’s there, what might be waiting where my feet can reach.
