AT Ch3

If things had gone wrong, she would have ended up in the same orphanage as them. The young master, oblivious to this, probably bruised Chairman Jang’s ego by asking him point-blank if he was handing out alms to beggars. This was the only kind of revenge the kids could take right now.

Baekyoung couldn’t help but sigh. Even if Chairman Jang could laugh off Jang Heejo’s impudence, which he wouldn’t trade for the world, seeing this might make him burn down the orphanage.

She put her hand in the half-empty padding pocket of her jacket. But it wasn’t enough to block the winter wind, and her fingers quickly froze even inside the pocket.

“Hey, you fucker, you’re dead if you talk.”

One of the gang members, looking around, spotted Baekyoung and shook his fist at her.

Baekyoung needed to keep living here for now. It would be a problem if Chairman Jang burned down the orphanage.

Taking her silence as agreement, they dropped the lacquer and hurried into the auditorium before all the cake was gone.

“Ugh…”

She sniffled, as if a cold was coming on, then coughed. Baekyoung, unconcerned, reached for the lacquer to erase the writing before anyone saw it.

As she bent down, someone picked it up first. The hand that briefly brushed against the back of her hand was soft and warm.

Tsssk.

Jang Heejo, wearing a red coat, nonchalantly looked at the wall with the red lacquer in his hand, then shook the spray can and started spraying the wall.

She thought he would be furious at the insult and immediately run to tell Chairman Jang, but it seemed he was just going to erase it.

Baekyoung sniffled, thinking that maybe he was hurt because his birth mother’s story was true. Then, looking at the wall, she involuntarily coughed, “Ahem.”

Jang Heejo, you fucking moron

Fucking moron.

“Urgh… Urgh…”

She had asthma, so once she started coughing, it was hard to stop. Jang Heejo threw the lacquer behind him and smiled contentedly. Then, he finally turned his head toward Baekyoung.

“What’s that? What’s making that noise? A dog?”

Her hacking cough must have sounded like a dog. Baekyoung, dumbfounded by his words, stopped coughing and burst into laughter, her body shaking. Jang Heejo wore a sulky expression, but then, finding Baekyoung’s appearance truly dog-like, he joined in, chuckling.

They laughed like that for a while, until someone called for Jang Heejo from the auditorium. Baekyoung quickly picked up the lacquer he had thrown and painted over the letters.

“It’s the same name as my grandfather, so if you do this, you’re insulting my grandfather. Why are you erasing it? What a waste.”

His tone was filled with disgust. The disgust he held was directed at his blood-related family.

“Urgh… still…”

“Fucking morons who wave their dicks around everywhere.”

“Ahem.”

Startled, she coughed again. Perhaps because of the strong spray paint smell, her cough wouldn’t stop and grew worse. Jang Heejo chuckled again at the sound.

He took the lacquer back and roughly erased his name.

“Not a dog, but a puppy.”

Then, complaining that the lacquer had gotten on his clothes, he took off his bright red coat, put the hood over Baekyoung’s head, and strode away. Because it was a red coat, there were no lacquer marks visible anywhere. The coat was warmer than the worn-out padding she was wearing.

Baekyoung didn’t return to the auditorium that day, but quickly returned to the communal dorm and hid the coat deep in the closet. If anyone saw it, it would surely be taken away.

And not long after, when the bigger kids found the coat and took it from her, Baekyoung fought like a dog for the first time in this place. With her small body, she lunged at the bigger kids, biting and clawing, trying to protect what was hers.

Of course, all that Baekyoung got in return were bruised wounds.

After that, whenever she saw Jang Heejo, the graffiti ‘Jang Hee-dick’ was the first thing that came to mind.

Jang Heejo came to the orphanage a few more times after that, but Baekyoung tried her best not to be seen by him. And if their eyes ever met, she would pass by as if he were a stranger.

That’s how she became a member of the Ant Tunnel as soon as she turned an adult. She had never met Jang Heejo once after leaving the orphanage. She never thought she would see him right in front of her like this.

“Who is it?”

Jang Heejo, twenty-three years old.

And Choi Baekyoung, twenty-three years old. Seeing him reminded her of the red coat that had briefly been hers. Because of the coat that she never even got to wear properly before it was taken away, Baekyoung came to hate the color red.

“An ant. A worker ant.”

With those words, Baekyoung quickly opened the front door. She could see Jang Heejo’s gaze scanning the unremarkable interior of the house. Afraid of arousing suspicion if she closed it too quickly, she slowly closed the door when she thought he had seen enough. Then, she latched the old bolt.

Their voices could still be heard through the thin plywood. Jang Heejo was still standing in front of the door. Hearing the voices, she couldn’t lie down on the bed to rest her weary body either.

“There’s no one here who would steal our stuff anyway. So, if you go back and wait…”

“Taekyung, let’s do our job properly. That thing has been flown around five times. It disappeared right when we got here, so who can we trust and leave it to now?”

They had flown it around five times on airplanes.

A carefully brought-in item. While deliberately making bustling household noises inside, Baekyoung’s ears were open to the outside.

“We have time until the inauguration, and we’ve never failed to find something that’s been stolen so far.”

“It couldn’t have been done alone. Keep a close watch on our ants. See if any ants are disappearing in the middle.”

He emphasized the word “ant” especially strongly. As if he liked the word “ant” that came out of his mouth, Jang Heejo faintly smiled.

“See if any ants are disappearing in the middle.”

Those words felt like they were aimed right at her. Baekyoung realized that her plan to pretend to know nothing had been disrupted.

It meant that the person who stole the drugs was obviously another ant. And she, living next door, was on their list of suspects.

“A rat in a trap. Shit, Taekyung, but the trap is too big.”

Thump, thump.

Jang Heejo, speaking as if for someone to hear, kicked the door of the house on the opposite side this time.

For ordinary people, it would be impossible to find anything in this place where worker ants were diligently working, but Chairman Jang’s people were different.

Baekyoung opened a cup of ramen, poured the remaining water from a water bottle lying next to her, and put it in the microwave.

Listening to Jang Heejo’s words, it was clear that they would be conducting thorough investigations several more times in the future. The investigations usually took place in the chaotic early morning hours. They cleverly targeted the times when the worker ants were tired and asleep, or when they were waking up and preparing to go to work.

Baekyoung did various jobs. Some days she ran errands at the hospital, and other days she was called to work at a restaurant. However, she wouldn’t even look at gambling dens and prostitution, no matter how much money they offered. Because they were full of drug addicts, working there would eventually lead to drugs.

Most pharmaceutical companies across the country conduct new drug experiments on the drug addicts in the Ant Tunnel of Cheonghan City. They are existences that no one would know even if they died. They are lives at the bottom, that no one is looking for.

Ding!

She had been listening to the conversation outside and didn’t even realize the microwave had finished.

Baekyoung closed her eyes for a moment. Seeing Jang Heejo in front of her made her heart beat faster and made her even more tired. She should just lie down. She could eat the soggy ramen after she woke up.

“How many illegally modified rooms are there? I should report them all to the city’s building management department. To call this a place for people to live, shit…”

She could hear constant grumbling from outside.

Baekyoung lay down on the mattress, holding her breath as quietly as a guilty thief, then silently laughed. It would be fun to see Jang Heejo report this place to the city’s building management department and see Chairman Jang get arrested. But that would never happen.

The landlord of this place, who didn’t even know how many rooms there were in the Ant Tunnel, was kicking the doors of this house and that house.

Thump. Bang. Thump.

Perhaps if she hadn’t met him at the door, a quarter of her door would have disappeared. Thinking such absurd thoughts, Baekyoung listened to the receding footsteps and soon fell asleep.

Thump… thump… crash. Bang!

Living in the Ant Tunnel, she could sleep well even with considerable noise.

Baekyoung woke up to the sound of rain amidst the noise. Reacting instinctively, she picked up the laundry she had gathered to take to the laundry room tomorrow. Then, she stuffed the clothes into the gap under the front door, where the plywood was separated by about a finger’s width, blocking the hole, and rubbed her sleepy eyes.