Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1797

“Uuuh.”

Park Yu-min clutched his stomach.

“Ugh, my stomach….”

His stomach felt queasy, and his head was throbbing. It seemed like he had partied too hard yesterday.

“Let’s go get some tea, tea!”

“No… the sun’s up, Young-gi!”

“Ah, I don’t care! I’m not going home today! Absolutely not!”

“…He’s hopeless.”

Recalling yesterday’s memories made his stomach churn again.

In the end, Joo Young-gi insisted that the promise to drink only half was about the number of rounds, not the amount, and dragged them on a forced tour.

It was only after seeing the sunrise that they could put Joo Young-gi in a taxi.

And Park Yu-min, unable to return to the dorm reeking of alcohol, found himself at….

Bang!

“You little punks!”

Jo Mi-hye burst through the door, her eyes blazing.

“You come crawling in here drunk from the morning, and then you’re passed out until noon? I’m so sick of you guys! What are the kids going to learn from this!”

“Ugh… don’t, don’t yell. My head is pounding. Ugh!”

“Just die! Just die!”

Jo Mi-hye kicked the blanket away, and Park Yu-min scrambled to get away from her attack.

“Wait, what about this guy?”

Jo Mi-hye’s eyes blazed again.

When she lifted the blanket, Kang Jin-ho was still sound asleep, curled up like a grub, despite all the commotion.

“Get up, you punk!” Her shout echoed through the orphanage.

“Why are you doing this, Director?”

“You too, Oppa [older brother/term of endearment for an older male]!”

The two men, kneeling side by side, hung their heads low.

“You weren’t like this before! Seriously, people are supposed to get better with age, but how are you getting worse every day! Worse!”

“We’re sorry.”

“We were wrong.”

The two grown men were cowering before the ferocity of a high schooler.

“No! Apologies are not enough, explain why you’re acting like this.”

“Well, we didn’t mean to, it’s just….”

“Young-gi….”

Jo Mi-hye clicked her tongue.

“Pathetic, so pathetic. You’re already blaming your friend.”

It was unfair.

This was so unfair.

Of course, Kang Jin-ho and Park Yu-min had tried to stop Joo Young-gi, but trying to stop Joo Young-gi, who was excited about getting married and becoming a dad, was impossible even if Kang Jin-ho’s grandfather had come.

“Okay, okay. So you don’t want to hang out with me anymore, is that it? Now that you’re getting married, you’ll focus on your family, and you guys will hang out by yourselves, is that it? Ah, I don’t have a single friend to drink with. I’ve lived my life wrong.”

…Before she beats them to a pulp.

“Oppa.”

“Huh?”

“I wish you guys would be a bit more of a role model for the kids.”

“Ah, of course, we know. We know you guys are successful and doing well. But… I’m afraid that when the kids look at you, they’ll think, ‘Even if I live recklessly, those who are meant to succeed will succeed anyway,’ instead of ‘I should work hard too.’ You know?”

“…We’re sorry.”

“We were wrong.”

Han Jin-sung covered his mouth and laughed as he watched the two men reflecting.

“Well, you should have been more….”

“You’re the biggest problem, you! You!”

Jo Mi-hye threw the pillow she was holding at Han Jin-sung.

“Oppa at least succeeded! Why are you living recklessly when you’re just a re-sitter [a student who is retaking the college entrance exam]!”

“Re-sitters have rights too!”

“Rights, my foot! If Martin Luther King saw you, he’d hit you with a Bible!”

Kang Jin-ho whispered as he watched Jo Mi-hye kick Han Jin-sung.

“Yu-min.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t you think the women around us are a bit… fierce?”

“Jin-ho, I’ve been thinking about that….”

“Yeah?”

“Maybe it’s just us who are the problem? If it was just one or two, it could be a coincidence, but if it’s everyone, there must be a reason.”

Faced with an irrefutable logic, Kang Jin-ho turned his gaze away.

“It’s a good thing it’s the weekend, what would you have done if it was a weekday?”

Park Yu-min smiled brightly at Jo Mi-hye’s angry voice.

“Hey, no. We drank recklessly because it’s the weekend, if it was a weekday, we would have been moderate….”

“Get outtttttttt!”

Kang Jin-ho and Park Yu-min sat on the swing in the orphanage, looking dejected.

“Jin-ho.”

“Yeah?”

“Mi-hye used to have trouble sleeping at night, you know?”

“Why?”

“She was always scared even when she was with the kids, so I would bring her to sleep next to me and pat her back at night….”

“It’s kind of, well….”

Park Yu-min smiled faintly.

“I feel like I did something really wrong.”

“…Cheer up.”

“Yeah.”

A lonely wind blew.

“Still, it’s good that the kids are more energetic than before.”

“…They’re too energetic.”

“Yeah… it’s a bit much.”

Park Yu-min scratched the back of his head.

Back when he was still at Sungsim Orphanage, the children were all somewhat subdued.

It wasn’t that they were dark or gloomy, but that subtle shadow was something that Park Yu-min couldn’t do anything about, no matter how hard he tried.

But these days, the kids at the orphanage are….

“Young-gi is really amazing.”

“Why?”

“He’s having a baby.”

Kang Jin-ho found himself agreeing with Park Yu-min’s words without realizing it.

But Park Yu-min had a look of subtle pride on his face. It seemed that the fact that those little kids had grown up enough to nag at Park Yu-min was more than good.

“Heh.”

Kang Jin-ho scratched his cheek.

“Speaking of which, should we go visit?”

“Huh? Where?”

Kang Jin-ho got up from his seat without a word.

“Let’s go.”

“…Jin-ho, where are you going? You didn’t even bring your car?”

“We can take a taxi. Just follow me.”

Park Yu-min tilted his head and followed Kang Jin-ho.

“…Excuse me.”

“Yeah?”

“Was the place we were going your house?”

Park Yu-min, who got out of the taxi, tilted his head at the sight of Kang Jin-ho’s house in front of him.

“No.”

“Then why did we come here? The car is parked in front of the bar.”

“Wait here.”

Kang Jin-ho opened the garage door and went inside.

“Huh?”

Screech.

A sound of something rubbing could be heard, and then Kang Jin-ho came out, pulling a bicycle and placing it in front of Park Yu-min.

“You… this?”

“Let’s ride it for a while.”

Park Yu-min stared at Kang Jin-ho with a blank look.

“If we could go there by bike, we could have just taken a taxi.”

“It’s a different feeling.”

My friend.

You used to be such an efficient person, but now you’ve become a really inefficient human being.

“So, are you not going to ride it?”

“I’ll ride it!”

Kang Jin-ho smiled and got on the bike, and Park Yu-min quickly got on behind him.

“Let’s go.”

Kang Jin-ho pressed down on the pedals.

The bicycle carrying the two of them moved forward at a fast pace. Feeling the wind on his face, Park Yu-min smiled without realizing it.

“We used to ride like this a lot.”

“Yeah.”

Kang Jin-ho also seemed a bit excited after a long time, and he pedaled briskly.

Seeing the alleyways rushing by, it was kind of….

“…Let’s go a bit slower, Jin-ho.”

“It’s no different from before.”

“Then I must have been fearless back then.”

Kang Jin-ho laughed at his friend’s words, who had lost his courage with age, and slightly eased off the pedals.

“Are you afraid I’ll cause a traffic accident?”

“Then are people who can’t ride roller coasters afraid of getting into an accident?”

Oh?

That’s true?

Kang Jin-ho laughed at his friend’s change, who had become sharper than before.

Swoosh!

The bicycle that Kang Jin-ho was riding passed through a large road and entered a small alley. The bicycle, which weaved through the narrow alley that was now hard to find, began to climb up a steep hill as if it were flat ground.

Park Yu-min, whose body was leaning, stared blankly ahead.

‘It’s been longer than I thought.’

The days when they used to ride their bikes up this road.

It’s strange how fate works.

If Kang Jin-ho hadn’t happened to find him on his way to the orphanage and given him a ride on his bike, what would have become of Park Yu-min and Kang Jin-ho now?

Kang Jin-ho might not have been affected, but Park Yu-min would not have been living like this now. That small connection had brought Park Yu-min to where he was now.

“Jin-ho.”

“Why?”

“…Aren’t you tired?”

“It’s nothing.”

Kang Jin-ho sped up the hill that even bikes couldn’t climb well. When he was like this, he really didn’t seem like a human.

Park Yu-min turned his head and looked down.

Old, small houses lined up on both sides.

Those houses huddled together, creating a landscape that was now almost impossible to find.

‘It’s strange.’

There was a time when it was hard for him to see this sight with his own eyes. He wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. Living here made him feel his situation too clearly.

But after time passes, even those feelings become memories.

It seems that this sight feels more nostalgic than ever.

Swoosh.

The bicycle climbs to the top of the shantytown in one breath.

Squeak!

Park Yu-min jumped off the bicycle that had finally stopped. Then, he looked ahead without a word.

“…It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, it’s been a while.”

The old Sungsim Orphanage building came into view for the two of them.

“Wasn’t it supposed to be demolished?”

“Well, I was going to try to use it somehow….”

He had made various plans. But in the end, he always hesitated.

Kang Jin-ho wasn’t the type of person to be attached to buildings or objects. That’s why he sold his old house without any hesitation and neatly disposed of his broken bicycle.

But….

This house was a little different from those things.

The two approached the orphanage, which was now fenced off.

“Do you have the key?”

“…I don’t?”

Park Yu-min sighed, and Kang Jin-ho chuckled and grabbed the fence.

“Let’s climb over.”

“We have to climb over the fence to get into our own house….”

Kang Jin-ho, who had easily climbed over the fence, grabbed Park Yu-min’s hand and pulled him up. Park Yu-min, who had climbed up, jumped down without Kang Jin-ho’s help.

“You’ll get hurt.”

“I just need my arms to be okay.”

“…I guess that’s true.”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled.

It was just climbing over a fence, but Park Yu-min didn’t need his help anymore. In the past, he had even needed his help to climb up here.

It was a strange feeling.

The building was small and cozy, incomparable to the current orphanage. Park Yu-min’s eyes, looking at the building, became a little somber.

“…There’s a lock on this too?”

“Do you have the key… no, well, there’s no need to ask.”

Park Yu-min sighed.

“Let’s come back next time….”

Crack.

Kang Jin-ho, who had torn off the lock with his bare hands without damaging the hinges, shrugged his shoulders.

“Jin-ho.”

“Yeah?”

“I was going to ask you earlier, but I couldn’t….”

“Yeah?”

“Are you an alien?”

“…What’s so new about that?”

Park Yu-min shook his head as he watched Kang Jin-ho smile and go inside.

Perhaps because the door was completely closed, the inside of the orphanage wasn’t as dusty as he had expected.

And some of the furniture they used to use was still there. When they moved to the new orphanage, they took their personal belongings, but they didn’t need to move the furniture because they had bought all new furniture.

And….

They couldn’t bring themselves to dispose of the remaining furniture, so it remained as it was now.

The two of them silently looked at the orphanage.

It was as if Kang Jin-ho could see the familiar figure of someone smiling in the slightly darkened interior.

Even now, whenever he looked at this place, it felt like that person, the head nun, would greet him with a smile.

– Jin-ho, you’re here?

Kang Jin-ho closed his eyes slightly.

‘It’s been too long since I’ve been here.’

Kang Jin-ho, with his eyes closed, wore a small smile.