AT Ch7

Choi Baekyoung’s birth mother was rumored to be Choi Mihyun, a woman Chairman Jang used to keep close in the past. Kim Kwangsoo dredged up Choi Mihyun’s face from memories over 20 years old. The moment he thought there was a vague resemblance, Choi Mihyun’s face soon morphed into Baekyoung’s.

However, the truth was unknown to anyone. Choi Baekyoung could be one of Chairman Jang’s many illegitimate children, or not.

“Ah, right. Here.”

After finishing his cigarette, Kim Kwangsoo finally threw the butt on the floor. Before leaving, he rummaged through his gown pocket and tossed a small box to Baekyoung. Baekyoung held the handle of the mop to her chest and caught the item with one hand.

It was a familiar-shaped box that didn’t need to be opened to be identified.

“It’s almost asthma season.”

When winter ended, the asthma season accompanied by pollen would arrive.

Kim Kwangsoo, who had tossed her an inhaler for asthma patients, waved his hand and left. The most expensive thing in the Ant Tunnel was hospital medicine, which was worth its weight in gold. If she had to buy this with her own money, the cost would have been enormous, but thanks to him occasionally giving her an inhaler like this, Baekyoung could endure spring.

She quickly put the inhaler in her pocket and diligently pushed the mop. Now, even when she saw cigarette butts on the floor, she didn’t feel bad. She could just pick up the butts; the inhaler in her pocket made her feel good today.

“What, why are you grinning like that? Hey, the Madman only dotes on you.”

“I’m pretty, you know.”

“Ugh.”

Park Cheolsoo, who was slowly fetching water in a bucket, grumbled at Baekyoung. He pretended to vomit for a moment but eventually admitted, “You are pretty, though.” Baekyoung, who heard his mutterings, laughed even louder.

After scrubbing and wiping until her shoulders felt like they would fall off, the bloodstains were finally invisible in the operating room. Thanks to the Madman doctor, who still bought lunch boxes for the workers to eat, they were able to fill their stomachs with the cold lunch boxes.

The workers, who had secretly swiped a few plasters from the drawer when he wasn’t around, stuck them on each other’s shoulders and took a break. Kim Kwangsoo knew the workers were doing this but pretended not to notice.

Having collected their daily wages, they moved their steps towards their respective homes in the maze-like Ant Tunnel.

The lights that still didn’t know when they would go out flickered, and people’s vomit was scattered everywhere. Baekyoung stretched as she walked, avoiding the traces. Then, feeling the stench that had permeated her body, she decided to stop by the bathhouse first.

She picked up her phone, which had a crack across half the screen, and checked the time. It was just past 4 PM.

There was no call to come down to the underground, so if she went to the bathhouse and fell asleep, tomorrow would come quickly.

“…Youngie, hello….”

Baekyoung was about to pass by a woman sitting in a corner mixed with filth and greeting her, but she sighed and stopped.

“Why are you here?”

“Lost… my way.”

Usually, the junkies stayed on the 2nd floor, so the fact that the woman had come all the way up here meant her sense of direction had dulled. Her face was pale enough to look bluish, her cheekbones were protruding, and there were severe dark circles under her large eyes. Her once-clean whites were bloodshot, like someone who hadn’t slept in days.

She was a woman who used to work underground. Baekyoung had often seen her working with Sooyoung underground. Now, the woman, who had been kicked out of the underground, was said to be living by rolling around with junkies and working in cushion rooms in bars.

Baekyoung didn’t feel an ounce of sympathy for her. They knew they would meet an obvious end, but they still went underground. With the expectation that they would be different.

“Get up. I’ll take you.”

“…You don’t like me….”

Going to the junkies’ den made her sick. It was full of guys who would take the plaster off her shoulder and put it on their tongues, laughing like crazy. There were many guys who easily forgot the rules of the Ant Tunnel and ran wild, so Baekyoung avoided going there.

Perhaps she was avoiding it because she was afraid that she, too, would eventually end up there.

“I’ll only take you to the way down. Get up.”

As Baekyoung led the way, she heard the sound of the woman staggering and dragging her feet behind her. After passing the floor with the hospital, Baekyoung stopped in front of the stairs leading from the 3rd floor to the 2nd floor.

“Go down here and turn right.”

“Okay….”

The woman, who was staggering down the stairs, turned around and looked up at Baekyoung as if something had occurred to her.

“But… someone else got lost too…. They cursed at me…. They’re upstairs. Be careful….”

She didn’t even tell her who it was properly, so how could she be careful of someone she didn’t know?

When an outsider came up here, most of the time, they would call a guard to send them down nicely in order to avoid creating problems due to the appearance of a new person.

Who else was lost and wandering around here?

Baekyoung watched the woman go down and then moved her steps towards the bathhouse again. It was a place that even people who knew the way could get confused, so she had to find it carefully.

If you go up to the 6th floor and open the door of the 13th room, there is a staircase leading down instead of a room. From there, go down about half a floor and turn left again to go up the stairs. You have to pass through several rooms in that way, so you can’t estimate the actual location. She roughly guessed it was between the 6th and 7th floors.

The problem was that when she opened the 13th door, she encountered a sturdy back standing tall in front of the stairs.

…It’s Jang Heejo again.

“Going up, or going down?”

His voice didn’t seem to care, but his face was already covered in annoyance.

Was Jang Heejo the person the woman was talking about?

“Where are you going?”

“Our house.”

Hearing the word ‘our’ in a situation where they were alone made her feel strange, as if she was included.

“Then after you go out here, you have to turn at the last room on the corner and go up.”

“Where are you going?”

“To the bathhouse.”

The cause of her going to the bathhouse was standing right in front of her.

“There’s even a bathhouse in this shitty place?”

“Basically, it has everything you need to live.”

“Then I’ll go with you. I haven’t showered today.”

Taekyung wasn’t by his side. She didn’t want to ask how long he had been wandering around here without Taekyung.

When Baekyoung led the way in silence, she heard the sound of shoes following behind her. As she went down, turned the corner, opened another door, and stepped on the stairs going up, she heard a small curse from behind.

“Shit…. I can’t find it alone.”

“Why didn’t you call Taekyung?”

“Taekyung? I heard you two were dating, so you’re already calling her by her first name?”

She didn’t respond to the nonsense. Perhaps he didn’t expect an answer from the beginning, Jang Heejo casually swept back his bangs.

“It’s that way.”

Finally, when she found the door to the bathhouse and opened it, as always, a sturdy man was sitting in front of the counter.

“Shower? Bath?”

“I’m going to take a bath today.”

She took out 20,000 won from her wages she received today and paid, then took a disposable toothbrush, shampoo, and towel. When she turned around, she met Jang Heejo’s eyes, who had his hand in one of his pants pockets and was staring at Baekyoung. He brazenly opened his mouth.

“I don’t have any money.”

…Let’s just think of it as the cost of a sandwich.

She ended up paying twice as much for the already expensive bathhouse. As Baekyoung stepped aside as if to tell him to choose the necessary items, Jang Heejo picked up all the disposable items there.

“10,000 won more.”

The man, who had been sitting silently, demanded more money from Baekyoung.

She ate a damn expensive sandwich. As expected, you shouldn’t eat what others give you. The food she ate in the morning now felt heavy in her stomach.

“Next door, when you come out, wait for me and take me.”

He even wanted her to pick him up and take him. If only she knew Taekyung’s phone number, she would have called her and told her to take Jang Heejo.

“It’s no fun if you just leave, you know?”

That Jang Heejo, mentioning ‘fun’ in the Ant Tunnel. He walked leisurely into the bathhouse with two towels around his shoulders.

“Do you know him?”

Only after he disappeared did Myungjoo, who was at the counter, ask Baekyoung.

“No…. I met him for the first time yesterday.”

“He doesn’t seem to be from around here.”

Jang Heejo’s name was famous, but if you hadn’t met him directly, you might not know his face. Myungjoo, who only stayed in the bathhouse, might not know him.

“Yeah. He’s not.”

“Don’t get involved. He looks dangerous.”

“You took all my money earlier. And now you’re saying he looks dangerous.”

“This is business.”

Baekyoung chuckled at Myungjoo’s words. The bathhouse was inevitably more expensive than the market price. It was because many dangerous guys came looking for it. Myungjoo was also in charge of resolving their issues here.

“I’ll give you a banana milk as a service when you come out later.”

It was a small amount compared to the money she had spent, but Baekyoung was soon in a good mood because it was rare for Myungjoo to give a service.