The Trash Wants to Live

PR: Xashaha

She was hostile toward Ki Sun-woo, but when she looked at me, her demeanour warmed.

"Poor thing… Surely you're not being threatened here as well?"

"There haven’t been any threats for now.."

At my words, Jung Hye-yeon pursed her lips as if she wanted to say something, but then she smiled self-deprecatingly and lowered her head. Perhaps she wants to ask me what it was like to live in the U.S. 

Their appetites had dropped, and they put down their utensils while we sat in silence. Only Jung Hye-yeon kept sipping her wine as if she was thirsty.

"If you want—" It was Ki Sun-woo who broke the silence, "If you want, you can stay in America."

"…"

"You could consider studying abroad. That's more…”

He stopped and bit his lips as if he was surprised by what he was saying. He shook his head slightly and changed his words.

"I misspoke. It's nothing."

Ki Sun-woo said that and kept his mouth shut as if he were not to make any more mistakes.

Eventually the meeting ended just like that, as we weren't close enough to engage in casual conversation and ended up parting ways with each other shortly.

Ki Sun-woo, whose face had been so complicated earlier, looked at me coldly again as we parted. On the contrary, it was funny that Jung Hye-yeon, whom I met for the first time today, was so affectionate.

"Can I give you a hug?"

Before I got into the car, I was about to say no to her question, but when I saw her moistened eyes, I couldn't help but nod.

She hugged me tightly and slipped her business card into my pocket, telling me to call her if things got tough. She hastily put it in my jacket pocket, perhaps thinking that if she just handed it out to me, I might reject it.

"Goodbye…"

Ki Sun-woo looked like he had a lot to say, but that's all he ended up spitting out. I just nodded casually and got in the car.

‘I’m tired.’

Today's meeting made me a little tired. I thought there must be something wrong with everyone being so worried…

‘It seems like Ki Sun-woo cares more about Ki Yoon-jae than I thought.'

He kept trying to hide it, but it showed in his actions. Yet, the reason people around Ki Yoon-jae were cautious of him…

‘It's probably because Ki Yoon-jae has been living on a knife-edge the whole time.’

Given his personality, he wouldn't have talked about Ki Sun-woo to others or discussed their relationship. He might have just shown reluctance or hostility, so people who knew him would have expected that he and Ki Yoon-jae were not on good terms…

‘Perhaps. But could there be something more?’

I glanced at the driver's seat. Kwon Jae-hyuk, who was driving silently, had known Ki Yoon-jae from the past, so he must know something…

‘I wonder if there's any point in asking…’

I felt like I needed to know why Ki Yoon-jae resented his father. It was questionable that Ki Yoon-jae in the original work would hate his father for no reason, even if he had a trashy personality. Whether it's a bad thing or a misunderstanding, there must be a reason…

"Hyung."

"Yeah?"

"In the future… What happened to my father?"

Since I couldn't ask about the past, there was only one thing I could ask about. The future I don't know, but I thought it might be possible to infer from Ki Sun-woo's behaviour after Ki Yoon-jae's death, which was not written in the original story.

Kwon Jae-hyuk pondered for a moment upon my question and then spoke up.

"Actually… I don't know."

"Huh?"

He doesn't know? After Ki Yoon-jae's death, Sungwoon was handed over to Ki Hyun-joo… But there’s no way everything in Ki Jae-mu's authority would be handed over to Ki Hyun-joo right away. Ki Sun-woo was slowly taking over. Given the order, it would have been correct for all the authority to be handed over to Ki Sun-woo and for Ki Hyun-joo to take over after he became the leader, so Ki Sun-woo must have been active in Sungwoon.

‘Ah, could it be that he doesn't know because he hasn't looked into Sungwoon's matters?'

That's what I thought, but the reason that came out of Kwon Jae-hyuk's mouth was different. He parked the car over to the side of the road for a moment, as if he didn't think it was a topic to talk about while driving.

"After Ki Hyun-joo won the people's support and became the new successor…"

"…"

"He disappeared."

"Huh?"

He disappeared suddenly? I was puzzled by the unexpected development, and Kwon Jae-hyuk continued to speak.

"He literally disappeared. He's not the kind of person who would suddenly disappear like that, but… He's an adult, and there was no suicide note or anything, so the search has been slow."

"Why? Did they find out why he disappeared?"

"Who knows. Anyway, because of that empty position, Ki Young-woo must have been happy. He was able to take the position of Ki Sun-woo that he was aiming for. Unfortunately, Ki Sun-woo couldn’t pass it on to Ki Sung-yoon because of Ki Hyun-joo, but I think Ki Sung-yoon was so happy that he took that position himself.”

“…”

"After Ki Jae-mu died of old age, they also stopped conducting searches to show he had died. And so, there were rumours that circulated afterward. Ki Young-woo was…”

Kwon Jae-hyuk hesitated to bring up the rest of the story. I didn't get to hear the end of it, but I could roughly guess. I guess that's why Ki Sun-woo didn't appear until the very end of Kwon Jae-hyuk's memories. I felt a little uneasy.

‘What if, what if… It's unlikely, but just in case….'

Could Ki Yoon-jae's death have something to do with Ki Sun-woo's disappearance? Upon forming the thought, I urgently asked Kwon Jae-hyuk.

"How long has it been… since I last saw my father?"

"About seven years, since you were… ten years old."

Kwon Jae-hyuk answered reluctantly and then closed his mouth with an uneasy look on his face. He seemed uncomfortable talking about this topic.

‘Ten years old…'

That was the memory gap of Ki Yoon-jae that I had. I was convinced something had happened.

‘Did something happen around that time that made Ki Yoon-jae hostile to Ki Sun-woo?’

All this time, I thought that Ki Seon-woo wasn't interested in Ki Yoon-jae and that's why he never contacted him… What if something happened and that's why Ki Yoon-jae rejected Ki Sun-woo?

‘But that doesn't explain it either.'

The image of Ki Sun-woo, who showed all his interest but then acted coldly, as if trying to push me away, came to mind. Yet those eyes cannot hide his regret.

I tried to find out something by combining the information, but the skill that had been working so well did not spit out any information. It's like… the system doesn't want my memories to come back.

‘Hmm?' 

While lost in thought, I felt a gaze on me. When I raised my head, my eyes met Kwon Jae-hyuk through the rearview mirror in the car. He was about to say something to me, but someone from outside tried to open the car door

However, due to the lock, the door didn't open and it just made a rattling sound.

"Oh?"

I saw a familiar face through the tinted glass, and the man tapped on the window.

[Open the door.]

He appeared to be quite nervous as he looked around. I didn't open the door, but rolled down the window slightly, and a finger slipped through the small gap. It was so small that the man couldn't get his whole hand through, only his fingers.

[Hmm.]

[Open it.]

[Look, Jade. Shouldn't you say hello first?]1

[Just open it.]

I pouted my lips as I looked at Jade talking irritably. I pulled the window back up, only to find Jade's fingers stuck in the gap.

[Agh! What are you doing?!]

"Shall we go? Yoon-jae-ya."

"Hmm…"2 

Since his hand is stuck, if I leave like this, I will be able to drag Jade around. I didn't want to go that far, but I didn't like his attitude, so I was planning to scare him a little, but Jade sensed that something was off from the atmosphere.

[What? What are you going to do? Damn it!]

Jade took out something sturdy from his pocket. It seemed like he was planning to break the glass…

‘It won't work, because it's bulletproof glass…’

But when I thought about it, this was a borrowed car, and I was worried that it would be bad if it got scratched, so I lowered the car window to prevent him from hitting it. But now that his hand was free, Jade didn't even think about pulling out his finger, but instead stuck his arm in.

"What?"

I blurted out in Korean. But no one answered that question. Jade, who had unlocked the car's door by putting his arm through, opened it  and crawled into the car.

[Ugh, what the hell!]

[Move aside a bit.]

Due to Jade pushing, I was forced into the adjacent seat. Despite my grumbles, he calmly sat down and fastened his seatbelt.

[What are you doing? Aren't we going?]

He treated us like a private taxi.

T/N: Thank you guys for waiting. And Happy Halloween in advance 🎃🎃🎃👻 Anyway, I'm dropping this. I'll make an announcement on my discord server also I will share the mtl. You can join my server via the link I've attached on the novel main page description. I apologize for dropping this after making you all waiting and big thanks to everyone for staying with me for almost three years. 😉😘💝 If there are any good BL harem, you all can also recommend me by commenting below and I'll consider it. ONCE AGAIN, TYSM, LYA AND SEE YOU GUYS AROUND 😘💋💋

1. Spoke in English.
2. Spoke in Korean.