Runner-up's Revenge

“Maybe I should just leave the blanket here.”

Dahye took off her shoes again today, only to lie down in the entrance and gaze at the ceiling. Every day was a continuous cycle of overwork. Her calves were swollen, and even the slightest touch caused sharp pain.

There was a clear reason why she pushed herself to the limit every day. The results were right in front of her. Even though every day was tough, as long as there was a sense of accomplishment at the end, it didn’t matter. She was living exactly as she had said she would, before joining Hanban Bank, back when she was preparing for the exams. She told herself, if she could just get into Hanban Bank, she would give everything, literally everything, to the bank.

“There’s really no one quite like Dahye,” her colleagues always said.

And those efforts came back as results, continually increasing her reputation. Dahye was well aware of these facts, so she pushed herself every day. She nodded as reassuring herself.

“This is how it should be.”

If she continued to live like this, naturally her life would get back on track, and she would be able to build a solid footing at work. But most importantly, Dahye was no longer the eternal second best.

She scoffed to herself. “Why am I thinking about him anyway?”

Dahye jolted upright in the entrance. Dowon’s face, the face of the top student in school, kept flickering before her eyes. When she woke up and went to work in the morning, when she arrived and threw herself into her tasks, on her way home, and even in her dreams, Dowon’s face appeared.

Those bloodshot eyes glared viciously into hers, but then they lowered, his voice apologizing and saying it was nothing—that he was sorry—before deflating again.

“…It’s because I have a soft heart.”

She thought of the sound Dowon’s fist made when it hit the counter, the aggressive look she had never seen cross his face. All of it left a deep impression because it was something she, with her soft heart, had experienced for the first time. Dahye got up and headed to the bathroom.

She soaked a cotton pad with makeup remover and placed it on both eyes to get rid of her makeup. The oily substance blurred her vision.

Yet Dowon’s face continued to swim before her, as if it was stuck to the back of her eyelids.

It was uncomfortable. It was interfering with her daily life. That guy was never helpful, even when he wasn’t here.

After finishing her shower, she found a missed call on the phone she’d left on the sofa. It was Yoonah, her old classmate who had joined her once, to humiliate Dowon at the convenience store.

She wrapped her wet hair up in a towel, sat down casually on the sofa, and called back.

“Yoonah, did you call earlier? Sorry, I was in the shower.”

“Oh, it’s okay, it’s okay. Did you hear?” Yoonah’s excited voice crackled through the speaker. “I heard from a couple of my friends that Dowon Lee’s family totally went broke.”

Yoonah’s delighted tone was irritating. As Dahye’s brow furrowed, she considered how lucky it was that Yoonah couldn’t see her.

“What are you talking about? Broke how?”

“Dowon’s dad ran off with all their money. Apparently, one of the people he borrowed money from is Junseok Kang’s dad. Dowon’s dad seriously borrowed from everyone and bolted. You know, Junseok and Dowon weren’t actually that close, but their dads were good friends.”

Dahye vaguely remembered this information. Although the two classmates were distant, she seemed to remember them occasionally asking about each other’s fathers. It didn’t matter, that wasn’t the issue at hand.

Dowon’s family is broke? Was that why he apologized last time, saying he was having a hard time?

“Are you sure about this? Did it happen recently?”

“Yeah, yeah, very recently. Since Junseok is talking about it himself, it must be true. Hey, karma really is a bitch. He’s finally paying for the way he acted in high school.”

Is this really karma? Did Dowon do something so wrong that he deserves being driven to this edge?

Hearing Yoona’s thrilled voice made her angry, not just annoyed.

Is Yoonah even human? Even if he had some issues during high school, how can a person get excited over someone’s life being ruined like this?

“How can you say—”

Dahye was about to snap back at Yoonah, but stopped herself.

I did this.

She had no right to say anything to Yoonah. Dahye had committed greater sins. She had thrown kindling at Dowon’s suffering. No, she even poured gasoline on it, wanting the flames to burn even higher.

“What? I didn’t hear you.”

“…It’s nothing. Wow. That family…”

She lay down on the sofa and thrashed out with her legs. She kicked the sofa and furiously punched the cushion lying next to her.

Yoonah was mumbling something animatedly, but Dahye couldn’t hear it. She let out a silent scream and clutched her hair in frustration.

Fuck. I didn’t mean for it to go this far. If your life was this messed up, you should’ve said something!

Her heart felt unbearably heavy, its weight nudging her towards insanity. Hadn’t she practically pushed Dowon to the edge? A sense of unease settled deep in her stomach. The image of Dowon’s face, still lingering in her mind, looked even sadder than usual.

“Yoonah, can you pass a message on to Dowon?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“It’s just that if he’s that struggling… You know, he should tell…”

“No, no, that’s not what I meant.”

Yoonah paused for a moment.

“Who else could possibly be in touch with Dowon besides you? It’s been ages since anyone’s heard from him. If anyone might be able to contact him, it would be Junseok.”

“Really?”

Damn it, he’d rather take a call from Junseok Kang than pick up my calls. I’ve been completely blocked.

Dahye held back another urge to shout at Yoona.

“Still… If you talk to him, let me know.”

***

“Surgery? Now?”

A few days ago, Mom had been discharged, saying she wouldn’t stay in the hospital long because it was expensive. Maybe she knew Dowon was working day and night like crazy, so she kept it a secret.

But just a brief stay for tests wasn’t going to improve her symptoms. Mom had also been working like mad, only to collapse and end up in the emergency room. That day, they admitted her immediately, saying she needed surgery right away.

“She is critically ill. She needs to be hospitalized and have surgery as soon as possible. Let the insurance company handle it for now.”

There’ll still be some money we need to pay upfront before the insurance even kicks in. All my cards are blocked, and right now, the money…

Dowon broke into a cold sweat, racking his brain. During the day, he worked on construction sites, and at night, he unloaded packages for overnight delivery—anything that required physical labor. But despite everything, he hadn’t managed to save much.

On top of that, being a day laborer meant he couldn’t even ask for money in advance. Actually, even if it were a salaried job, requesting money in advance would have been out of the question.

My mother is seriously ill, could I get an advance on my paycheck? What a miserable, old-fashioned tale of hardship.

Dowon felt himself sinking even as he stood upright, even as he heard his mother’s words urging him to stop. It was as if there were a swamp right under his feet. Nothing else could explain this overwhelming sense of despair rising up to his throat.

“I can do it. They say you need to be admitted today?”

Mom answered hesitantly. It seemed there was a little time. He ended the call saying he understood.

“Hana…”

He needed about 3 million won. If he asked Hana to lend him money…

“She’d come with her kidney in a bag of ice. That’s just the kind of person she is.”

Did she even have money? He couldn’t ask that of Hana, someone who was just holed up at home and running out of savings. If she knew he needed help, she’d happily part with an organ or two. He couldn’t risk that.

“Then…”

There was no one but Hana. No one he could bring this up to. Dowon slumped down and let out a hollow laugh. There wasn’t even time for this. He had to rest for just an hour or two and then go right back to work. There was no time to wallow in self-pity. Dowon started searching through his phone, digging up old friends.

“…Hello? Uh, how have you been?”

He’d lost all sense of shame, calling contact after contact, begging for money.

“I’m so sorry. She really needs the surgery…

He even reached out to friends whose names he probably wouldn’t have remembered if they weren’t saved in his phone. He contacted teachers who used to like him. But in the end, he only managed to get about 400,000 in total.

Two friends lent him 200,000 won each, saying they didn’t have much money right now. The teachers who had liked Dowon so much in his high school years and who’d said they would definitely treat him to a meal sometime, not one of them answered his calls.

“…200,000 won.”

Dowon’s relationships with others were worth exactly 200,000 won. Considering the way he had acted, he thought even that was generous. So he couldn’t be disappointed.

“Boss, this is Dowon Lee who used to work closing shifts…”

He had even reached out to the convenience store owner of the place he used to work. But of course, what came back through the speaker was a stream of curses.

“Are you out of your mind? Fuck, making excuses about your mom. I knew it from the moment a Seoyeon University graduate started working here. You’re gambling, aren’t you?”

He was clearly still furious about Dowon suddenly quitting after saying he would work there for a long time. Dowon couldn’t help but wish it was just gambling debt.

Then he could resolve it by hanging himself, or ending his life after having his liver and kidneys taken out. In fact, that was the end he longed for.

Borrowing money, then working like mad to pay it back; taking care of his mother, who might need hospitalization and surgery at any moment; and paying off his father’s debts until he returned to the tidied mess he’d created.

If these were the only goals he had left for his future, Dowon just wanted to blame everything on his own faults and kill himself.

“Is this all my fault?”

Was it a sin to be born to the wrong parents? Dowon felt like he was about to lose his mind. He could just leave and be done with it. Leaving his mother, stuck in a hospital room, waiting for a husband and son who would never come back.

Sometimes he thought that maybe it wasn’t his father, but his mother who was choking him. He knew he was looking for the wrong person to turn his arrows on.

Despite knowing this, sometimes his mother’s missed calls were scarier and more unpleasant than anything else. If he had no mother, he could cut his father out of his life. It was wrong to think that way, he knew..

How much has Mom sacrificed for me? Even now, she’s sacrificing for me. How can I wish she didn’t exist? I should be working to save money no matter what the circumstances. But. But. From the beginning…

If only Mom.......

“Crazy bastard.”

Dowon slapped himself, but the strike did nothing to dispel the fog in his mind.

Should I just gamble? Should I borrow money from a loan shark? Can’t I just just pay the hospital bill now and then return the money when the insurance processes?

Will the insurance even process? Do we even have insurance? Either way, if money’s coming soon, isn’t it okay to just borrow some?

Do I even need a liver or both kidneys? Can’t I just sell them and deal with a bit of physical discomfort?

He was tired now. Tired of handling someone else’s karma and running on no sleep.

At this point, he would lick the ground if someone gave him money to do it. His brain obviously wasn’t processing things correctly.

If he took a short rest, ate some food, and thought about it again, a sharper and superior solution might come to mind. But for now, only dangerous thoughts came up.

The only idea he had was to sell everything the black market would take, and become an empty body without a single organ left.

“…Dahye Yoon.”

He found Dahye’s number saved in his contacts. A slightly crazed smile split Dowon’s face, looking at that number he had never once dialed. No, he cried looking at it. He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t even tell what expression he was making anymore.

“Crazy bastard, crazy bastard… Absolutely not…”

He grabbed his head and slumped down. He wanted to wail out loud, but it seemed he had long forgotten how to do that too. His face grew damp with tears. He really had hit rock bottom. Surely a loan shark was a better option.

But then, how would he be any different from his father?

“…Fuck…”

Dowon bit down on his tongue, hoping the pain would bring him to his senses. The taste of blood flooded his mouth as he pressed the call button.

“…D—Da—Dahye. Dahye…”

There was no voice from the other end of the phone.

“I’m sorry but… Please, could you lend me some money—”

As soon as he choked the words out, sobs burst from his chest like a broken pipe.

“Please, please help me…”

He cried for a long time clinging onto the phone. There was no response from Dahye’s side.