Golden Time

Suhyuk did not languish in poverty severe enough to skip a meal. Though he led a meager life, he still could just about get by in life by suppressing his desire to eat more than what he was served, and he could get by in life by not being better dressed than others. Nonetheless, the crazy guy inside of him could not be content with that kind of poor lifestyle anymore.

Did he not want to live like the upper class? He approached those guys from rich families with an excuse of tutoring, and bossed them around, fully conceited. Teaching them? He did not teach them more than half of what he had in his head.

Despite that, he could get a lot of stuff from their parents such as clothes, cell phones, and watches as reward for his tutoring. If he could have his way, he wanted to change his parents. It was unfair.

‘Why wasn’t I born into a wealthy family?’

When he looked at his parents whose faces reflected the ravages of time, he found irritation and annoyance welling up within him.

‘Thanks to their parents, these poor-grade boys are living off the fat of the world. What about me? Why am I suffering like this because of my incompetent parents?’

When he compared his life to theirs, his head throbbed painfully, and the ensuing stress affected his grades, which kept plummeting. As if they did not want to miss that opportunity, they caught up with him closely.

‘How dare you guys chase me?’

He did not want to be beaten by these guys in the slightest. He obtained all the different kinds of medicine that could disturb their concentration; diarrhea medicine, sleeping pills, and so on… He very cunningly had them take the medicine, so they could not notice it. Was it too late though? Their grades shot up as if they were gaining momentum.

Consumed by impatience, Suhyuk grilled his parents to get him an expensive tutor, and finally he could get one. Nonetheless, his grades were still the same as before. Now, he was feeding them stronger and more pills.

“You’re a crazy b*tch,” Suhyuk muttered, looking at himself reflected in the mirror.

Now he could recollect the purpose of their study at Insoo’s home, and the intention of the meeting perfectly, among other things.

‘Were you so envious of them?’

While looking at himself silently, Suhyuk pulled out his cell phone to do something quickly.

(Hello)

It was Kim Insoo’s voice over the phone.

“I want to see you now,” Suhyuk said.

“What’s up? It’s too late. Why don’t we see eachother tomorrow?”

“Let me come to your house now.” It was 9 pm.

When he hung up the phone, Suhyuk immediately went to the parking space at Kim Insoo’s apartment complex to see him.

“Do you have any questions? You can talk over the phone instead of going to the trouble of coming to see me like this.”

“I’m sorry.”

At Suhyuk’s sudden voice, Insoo looked at him quietly. Very briefly. He then burst into a giggle, asking, “What are you sorry about?”

“That son of a b*tch, no, it was me. I’m sorry for what I had done to you,” said Suhyuk.

Insoo muttered, touching his lips as if he were thinking over something.

“What? Did you recall all that stuff?” asked Insoo.

“Yes,” answered Suhyuk.

“Hmm… I’m afraid it’s not going to be funny anymore if you already sensed it,” said Insoo.

The two kept silent for quite a long time. A dry, cold wind passed through them. It was Insoo who opened his lips first.

“It’s cold. Go back.”

Insoo started to walk back home.

“I’m sorry,” said Suhyuk.

His repeated apologies stopped him.

Insoo stopped and turned back, twisting his head a little bit.

“Do you think we did not know about your mischief from the beginning?” asked Insoo. His smiling expression became even more strange. Insoo cast a drowsy gaze at him as if a fat cat were looking at a mouse.

Suhyuk was lost for words. ‘Did they know about it from the beginning? Despite that, did they pretend not to know it all along?’

“It’s good to know that you recovered your past memories and apologized, but you have to know just one thing about the reason why your grade went down. Do you know why?” Insoo asked.

Suhyuk could understand his incoherent statement immediately. Actually what Insoo meant by that was that they paid back what Suhyuk had done to them from the beginning. They knew that there must have been some disturbing factor that made their grades worse, be it medicine or whatever it was.

After all, it was Suhyuk who was trapped inside a fence, and they were looking at him as if they were watching monkeys at the zoo.

“You should have checked out your opponents before toying with us. Do you know what the characteristics of a third-rate class like you are? You can never escape from our palms even though you are struggling desperately to get out. You know what I mean? The third class people stuck in a ditch are destined to live like that forever.”

Suhyuk grabbed both hands in spite of himself. Kim Insoo, who looked at his behavior, laughed.

“If you’re ignorant, you’re brave. Thanks to you, our grade went up, for which we’re grateful.” Insoo went back home with after saying those words.

Left alone, Suhyuk looked silently at the apartment complex surrounding him. He tightened his gripped hands a little more.

‘What Lee Suhyuk had done to them in the past. Yes, obviously that’s what I had done. I admit it. Mistake or not, it is good to admit it. What’s more important now is to move forward. A third-class life stuck in the ditch?’

Suhyuk’s eyes staring at the expensive apartment buildings shone chillingly.

‘Luxury foreign cars and apartments? Let me have them all.’

Suhyuk began to turn around and move. And he thought to himself, ‘I’ll certainly go to the medical school.’

…………………………..

After returning home, Suhyuk knelt before his mother and father, and he apologized for the mistakes he made in the past . His mother warmly embraced Suhyuk and his father laughed silently.

…………………………..

Suhyuk became a high school student, and he started to deliver newspapers early in the morning as a part-timer. His parents at first tried to stop him by all means, but in the end let him have his way.

The basis of studying is physical strength. As he had laid down in a vegetative state for a long time, his physical strength had been weakened a lot. By taking a part-time job, it’s like killing two birds with one stone. In other words, paper delivery was a good opportunity for him to make money for his private academy fee on the one hand, and to recover his strength on the other.

Suhyuk, who went out at dawn for newspaper delivery, stepped on the bicycle pedal. He turned around the apartment complex and single houses to deliver papers. He worked like that for about an hour or so.

He pedalled his bicycle again to deliver the last newspaper of his batch for the day.

At a shrieking noise, Suhyuk turned back his head. A motorcycle had fallen down astray on the street with the ignition switch not yet turned off, and was making a loud noise. Moreover, a man was trapped under the heavy motorcycle. He was struggling to get out of it, but it did not seem easy. Without the man’s knowing, red blood was flowing from his lower body, and he just lay trapped under the motorcycle.