Prey (Lee Seohan) - Chapter 127
“!!!!!”
“Run away!”
It felt like I heard someone shouting inside my head.
At that moment, Jeonghan turned his body and ran as hard as he could. The ice cream cone that his mother liked was mercilessly trampled underfoot.
Eunju’s funeral was held in succession.
“If only I hadn’t told Suho’s mom to go and rest back then……”
Hyeonjeong said that while crying nonstop.
“How could we have known that she would take her life in the meantime……”
The detective spoke as if to comfort her, his face complicated, but Hyeonjeong shook her head, sobbing.
“Still, we should have just kept her here, here. We shouldn’t have left a woman who lost her husband overnight alone, and for her to leave Suho behind like that…….”
Jeonghan was sitting in front of Eunju’s memorial portrait, which showed her smiling brightly, listening to Hyeonjeong’s cries.
There wasn’t even a proper photo suitable for the memorial portrait, so they hastily chose one from Jeonghan’s phone and made it.
“…….”
Jeonghan, who had been sitting quietly, staring at the photo of Eunju, suddenly stood up.
Then, he walked over to the detective who was talking with Hyeonjeong.
“Detective, sir.”
“Yes?.”
The detective looked down at Jeonghan with a pitiful gaze.
He was an unfortunate child who had suddenly lost both parents. He was only six years old.
Jeonghan swallowed hard and spoke while looking at the detective with trembling eyes.
“Some… some man killed my mom.”
“What? What do you mean by that?”
The detective knelt in front of Jeonghan. Jeonghan’s body was shaking uncontrollably.
“Some man…”
“Suho.”
At that moment, Seol Hee-nam, who had arrived at the funeral hall, approached Jeonghan.
“Hee-nam Uncle…”
As Jeonghan turned his gaze, his eyes widened.
“!”
Jeonghan’s eyes were fixed on Seol Hee-nam’s shoes.
Those shoes.
Seol Hee-nam’s shoes were identical to the ones that had been in the house when his mother died.
Jeonghan’s small body froze in an instant. The man who had turned his head toward him in the backlight and Seol Hee-nam’s face overlapped in his mind, sending chills down his entire body.
Seol Hee-nam stood heavily beside Jeonghan with a troubled expression and looked at the detective.
“I’m the one who discovered and reported it. I’m a friend of Cheol-eum.”
“Ah… I see.”
The detective straightened up.
“It must have been a big shock for you. You found her while delivering something from Cheol-eum’s company.”
“That’s right. My sister-in-law wasn’t the kind of person to do such a thing….”
Seol Hee-nam wiped his face as if washing it dry. He gave strength to his reddened eyes, as though holding back tears, and then lowered his gaze.
He looked down at Jeonghan, who stood frozen with a pitiable expression.
“Suho….”
He gently patted Jeonghan’s head and, with eyes even redder, looked at the detective. His eyes were unmistakably filled with the sorrow of someone mourning the loss of his friend and sister-in-law.
“Don’t mind what Suho just said. It seems he’s been deeply traumatized. He even told me that a great demon killed his dad….”
Seol Hee-nam let out a heavy sigh.
“I see.”
The detective looked down at Jeonghan with even more pity.
Jeonghan, pale and frozen, was staring only at Seol Hee-nam’s shoes.
“What on earth is happening all of a sudden, Suho? Hm? First Cheol-eum, and now your aunt… What is really going on?”
Seol Hee-nam, speaking in a lamenting tone, gripped Jeonghan’s shoulders painfully tight.
As if to prevent him from saying anything more.
“Don’t worry too much. Uncle will be there to support you from now on. Got it?”
Feeling the strength of that grip, Jeonghan’s body trembled uncontrollably.
Not long after that, Jeonghan ended up going to an orphanage.
He saw Seol Hee-nam again five years later at the orphanage. By then, Seol Hee-nam had become a successful businessman. His purpose in appearing there was clear.
He was there to confirm whether the son of the couple he had killed was still at the orphanage.
“…….”
Jeonghan, lost in memories of the past while sitting at the bar, turned his gaze to Taewoo.
Taewoo, too, was quietly drinking, as if recalling some memory of his own.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
Jeonghan poured whiskey into Taewoo’s empty glass as he spoke, prompting Taewoo to snap out of his thoughts and look at him.
When their eyes met, Taewoo’s gaze softened with an awkward smile.
“Just… thinking about the old days.”
Taewoo lowered his gaze and fiddled with his glass, his expression soon turning bitter.
