Soulmate [P.JM | K.TH]

43

Chapter  43

(Y/n's POV)

My father started telling the story.

"I was born and raised up in a well off family of Gwang-ju. My father was a chemist and my mother was a local high school teacher. I am the second child of three. After graduating from high school, I attended to a renowned college in Seoul. It was always my dream to study there. So, I was very happy when I got selected. I came to Seoul alone. Though everything was new to me, I enjoyed the life here."

"Since I am a social person, I got along well with everyone and made lots of friends at college within a very short time. One day, I met an old friend there. He was a friend from middle school. We lost contact long ago when his family moved to another town. We never came in touch for all those years. So, I felt good to see him after quite a long time."

"But as time passed, he felt really different to me for some reasons. Basically, he was like a celebrity to all, for his extremely luxurious life. Using only branded items, changing phones and cars every week was nothing to him. Therefore, he was pretty popular among all. But the most confusing part was that as I knew, by far, his family was not so stable to provide him that much money to live a life like that. His father died long ago, and it was only her mother who ran the family. Besides, he didn't even work anywhere or something. Then what was the source of all those? This was my question."

"I got too much curious about him before even realizing." He said and stopped for some time. I observed each of his expressions carefully. I had no idea where the story was heading towards, yet I kept trying to predicate.

He glanced at me, laughed shortly before saying, "And now I know that I shouldn't have got curious about him."

"Anyways." He started speaking again. "One day, in the middle of the conversation, I couldn't help but ask him about his over-luxurious life. He laughed strangely in reply and said, 'Meet me at 9 tonight. You'll know.' Then he left, leaving me dumbfounded and even more curious."

"That night he took me to a club. It was located at a place which can't be found that easily and later I knew why it shouldn't be found. There I met a lot of people. They were different to color, age, nationality and class. But they all had one thing in common. That was..." He halted for a bit.

"They were all smugglers."

I widened my eyes.

"What I got to know that night was my friend had a group of his own and he was on the lead. They used to import vehicles, devices, armours, drugs and so on illegaly from border side. The group members were fast, clever and furious. My friend had interaction with people from higher level from whom he used to get informations and directions. But it was never known who are they actually, or how he got into all this. After letting me learn about all these, he made a small request to me. That was to join his group."

"It was so umexpected, yet I denied without hesitation. Cause that was never my plan. Plus, I couldn't even imagine myself doing these illegal works. I was a typical good boy. At least, people used to tell. I was good as a student too. Teachers used to praise me, and I had a good reputation everywhere. There was no way I could do such things. But it should be told that my friend was too good at convincing people and controlling them. He approaches slowly and then wraps your neck like a cobra before you even notice. He tried so many ways to convince me to join his group. He is stubborn and never gives up until he gets what he wants. That's his power and he misuses it."

"He told me the same thing over and over again. But I kept denying. It was never an option after all. At one point, he told me that I could try for once at least. And this last word somehow put some effect on me. I decided to rethink about it and that was the biggest mistake of my life. I spent days thinking about it and I came up with a decision that I'd try it. Till this day I don't know what happened to me at that time or why I changed my mind all on a sudden. I wasn't needy. My parents were well off enough to provide me with everything that I wanted. Then why? Why did I choose that?" He sighed. Then said, "I still haven't figured out the answer."