Chapter 3: Hiding

On a remote hill in an area within the GyeongSang province.

There was almost no one living here and the pavement was non-existent, so it was hard to drive a car to here.

A SUV arrived at this place.

“Isn’t the air fresh here? This is my hometown and I lived here until the start of high school. This was a place where hardly anyone would visit in the first place. LeeSoo, the person who will take care of you is someone I had a brother-like relationship with.”

“What kind of person is he?”

“Hmm, his temper is a bit explosive. Other than that, he’s a good guy. He’s stouthearted so he doesn’t sell his friends out and his lips are tightly sealed.”

“That’s nice.”

There was a person awaiting them. After shaking hands with Yun Taesuk, he looked up and down at LeeSoo.

‘He looks fierce. His personality must not be ordinary. I would believe it if he was a gangster.’

LeeSoo swallowed his saliva.

The man had a glare that could subdue an average individual. This was a hard person to handle. He was an odd ball.

“You’re LeeSoo? The one who provoked the people in power?”

Their first meeting was full of hostility, but LeeSoo lowered his head.

“…Please take care of me.”

“You’re healthy, other than being on the skinny side. I would know once we live together, but you seem to have no mental issues either.”

“He’s a kid that has just woken up. Don’t work him too hard…”

LeeSoo wondered.

“Work?”

“Did you think you would eat for free? A perfectly fine, grown ass man like you should work. You will have to work as if your life was on the line.”

“Ah, okay.”

It was already an act of great kindness for Mr. Hwang to let LeeSoo stay with him.

“Then we will return.”

“Yeah, take care of Chohee.”

“Yes.”

“Good-bye. Ah, and LeeSoo?”

“Hmm?”

Yun Chohee was awkwardly standing and couldn’t finish her sentence. LeeSoo wondered why she had called for him, yet couldn’t finish her sentence.

“What is it?”

“N-Nothing. Just be healthy, I will visit once in a while…”

“Don’t come. The roads are dangerous, and a young lady coming here alone might get herself into trouble.”

The man cut Chohee off.

Chohee’s eyes glistened with tears, but she couldn’t look the man in the eye, and lowered her gaze.

Yun Taesuk had a bitter smile on his face. He knew what his daughter was thinking.

It’s just that the more LeeSoo and Chohee saw each other, the more the memory of Junghee would leave a shadow in their hearts.

‘It would be best to separate them for awhile.’

“Then I’ll leave LeeSoo to you.”

“You don’t have to say any more, you can leave now. Don’t come visit and don’t call. It will do this kid no good, if you come.”

Yun Taesuk nodded in understanding.

“I’m Hwang Gaueng. I have a son named Sol, so keep that in mind.”

“Yes, Elder Hwang.”

“Elder my ass, I’m just a farmer.”

“Then I’ll call you Mister Hwang.”

“I guess that’s better than Elder… So, you woke up after two months of being in a coma? I heard you got attacked, you did well to survive.”

“I was just lucky.”

“Luck? If it was luck, then the heavens must have helped you, if you didn’t have two lives of course.”

“What?”

“No, it’s nothing…”

Mr. Hwang trailed off.

LeeSoo interpreted Mr. Hwang’s mumbling in a strange way. Saying that he had two lives matched LeeSoo’s situation perfectly.

‘It must have been a coincidence.’

LeeSoo argued with himself.

“What kind of work will I be doing from now on?”

“Nothing much. Just helping out a bit at the fields and taking care of some chickens and goats is all. Oh, we don’t have a heating system so you will have to chop some firewood.”

‘We’re in the 21st century, yet we still need to chop for firewood?’

LeeSoo was baffled, but didn’t say anything because Mr. Hwang was glaring at him.

“You have a problem?”

“No, I think it’s interesting.”

What could he say, he was a guest.

LeeSoo sneakily diverted his gaze.

Mr. Hwang chuckled.

“Even among the most remote areas around here, this place is the most rural, so we have no electricity. There are no towns around here and no one living here except us. You will have to travel quite a distance to the nearest town to buy your living necessities.”

“I brought everything I need.”

“At least you prepared well. Rather than that… You, how old are you?”

“I’m 26.”

“You’re 6 years older than my son. Don’t bully him.”

“Haha, how could I. By the way, what kind of person is your son?”

“He’s a gentle kid. Somewhat too gentle because he looks stupid from time to time… But his strength is no joke. If he becomes mad, he will attack without restraint, so don’t anger him. I’m saying this for your own good.”

“Yes sir. By the way… your house is pretty far away.”

“I already told you that we have no electricity. We have to walk for 30 more minutes.”

‘Why are they living in this kind of place?’

No matter how much of a bumpkin farmer you were, living in this kind of remote mountainside would bring more negatives than positives. Even people who were sick of the city life and moved to the country would live in better conditions than this.

“We’re here.”

The house had been a long walk away, just like Mr. Hwang had said.

“Father!”

A young man was brightly smiling at them while waving his hands.

LeeSoo wondered after seeing this.

“Your son’s height is…?”

“2m 10cm.”

“Wow. He would be terrifying if he got angry.”

“No, the reason is not simply that… never mind.”

Hwang Sol came running towards LeeSoo. His speed was comparable to a moving bullet train.

LeeSoo unconsciously backed off. However, Sol had a gentle personality like Mr. Hwang had said.

“Hehe, my name is Hwang Sol. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Han LeeSoo. I will be in your care for a while due to my circumstances. I’m sorry if I’m a nuisance.”

“N-No, you’re not! You don’t know how much of a relief it is to me because I’m always bored. There are no TVs or computers at my house so there is almost nothing I can entertain myself with.”

“Hmm, okay.”

LeeSoo had already heard this before he had arrived but now that he was here, the reality still disappointed him a bit. He wanted to at least know what was going on outside.

“Stop saying useless things and go inside. Han LeeSoo, you must be tired. Go and have a good rest today. Focus on recovering your health for the time being.”

“Hmm, what would be something for you to do…”

After thinking for a while, Mr. Hwang snapped his fingers.

“Ah yes, I would like you to teach Sol. I should have educated him but, well, I have no talent in studying.”

“Teaching?”

“I was not in a situation to send him to school. He had no use for studying difficult subjects. You just have to teach him some mathematics so he won’t get scammed somewhere.”

“Then, I’ll start from high school education.”

“No, start with the multiplication tables.”

“…”

“I’m entrusting this to you.”

LeeSoo was speechless.

LeeSoo focused on recovering his health like Mr. Hwang had said. Eating well, moving around frequently, sleeping well while periodically teaching Sol.

It was a simple but routine lifestyle and because of that, he was recovering rapidly.

Mr. Hwang muttered.

‘Monster. He was scrawny when we first met, but he returned to normal in less than 2 months. He could start working now.’

“You, do you know how to do any farm work?”

“I haven’t, but I’ve observed you and Sol work in the fields.”

“Just do what I tell you to do and don’t do anything I don’t ask you to do. The harvesting season has already passed so there is not much left to do.”

“Yes sir. What should I do first?”

“Cut firewood.”

LeeSoo immediately left and came back with an axe.

During this time, he hadn’t slacked off and had focused on exercising his muscles, so they were somewhat back to normal.

He swung the axe with all his might.

-Thwack

The axe cut halfway into the firewood, and then stopped.

LeeSoo’s eyebrows twitched.

“This is harder than it looks.”

“You thought it would be easy when you were watching. Cutting firewood is a skill, you have to work diligently at it to cut well.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

He didn’t expect himself to cut the log in half on his first try. The veins on LeeSoo’s arms bulged out. He turned the firewood over and struck down at the new side.

This time, it was split in half.

‘I did it!’

He had gotten the hang of it after all.

The sliced pieces of firewood were flying out with every chop of the axe. Mr. Hwang was amazed at the sheer speed.

“You’re doing quite well. Chopping firewood is more skill than strength, but you’re unexpectedly doing it easily.”

“It’s because you taught me well.”

“Taught well my foot, don’t glorify it. Rather, don’t strain yourself too much. If you go too crazy, you will harm yourself.”

“Hehe.”

LeeSoo just smirked.

The work was not that hard for him. He might be mistaken, but he felt like he was stronger than before.

-Chop! Chop!

‘Are you trying to let your anger out like this?’

Mr. Hwang silently worried after watching LeeSoo chopped log after log.

However, he didn’t stop him.

What LeeSoo needed right now was work. He had to be kept busy so his mind didn’t wander off.

This was one of the reasons Yun Taesuk had brought LeeSoo over here in the first place. It was so that they could work him hard to prevent his mind from wandering off.

“Hmm?”

Mr. Hwang’s gaze was alarmed. For a moment, a dark aura had permeated through LeeSoo’s arm. It disappeared in the moment it took to blink, but it was definitely not an illusion.

Mr. Hwang looked at LeeSoo with a perplexed gaze.

‘What the hell is he?’

Time passed by without restraint. In the meantime, LeeSoo used his body a lot at Mr. Hwang’s urging.

Work in winter was considered light, but that was according to Mr. Hwang’s standards. In reality, it was incredibly busy as they had to take care of the farm animals and fix the barn.

Also, it wasn’t as if they weren’t growing crops in the winter, because there was such a thing as winter crop. And they had to erect a fence to ward off the wild animals.

“Do wild boars come out?”

“Why would they not come out? It’s winter. It’s common for them to appear here with the disappearance of their source of food. They often show on TV about how boars come to human territory and kill. Furthermore, our house is right in front of a mountain. Do you think they wouldn’t come? It’s as if our farm fields are those bastards’ food storage house.”

“That’s a problem.”

“If wild beasts, like boars and deers, ruin our fields, it’s no different from them ruining all our hard work. We have to stop them by constructing a barrier. Why don’t we catch them? You, do you have a gun? How are we going to hunt them without a gun?”

“A fence wouldn’t be the perfect solution. What would we do if they hop over?”

“We have to stay still. We can handle deer, but we can’t carelessly enrage boars unless we have the confidence to kill them. Safety is the most important thing, remember that.”

Mr. Hwang repeated his warning several times. Do not disturb boars. They were safe if they stuck to that.

However, the world doesn’t go according to one’s wishes.

It was one week after Mr. Hwang’s warning.

LeeSoo came face to face with a boar.