With a cigarette sandwiched between two lips, Kang Seon Jin clapped as he stroked following Ji Sung, who was on Freire. "Come on, Kid. Kick the water up. You can do it!"
"Jin, help me, Goddamid!" Ji Sung almost drowned. " I can't swim, for god sake! Help!"
"You must learn how to swim. You need that survival skill in that world. If you can't, then you better die here, Kiddo."
"I could die!"
"Yeah, that's what I said. You better die here than there. But make sure you die trying to survive?" Kang Seon Jin plows a thick haze of space.
He followed Ji Sung and cheered him, clapping. He tried to break every shit out of Ji Sung. "You can fuck that girl for a night. You should have pretty decent stamina. Use it, kid, use it."
When they were on the Crosswater path, using his feet on Ji Sung's head, Kang Seon Jin pushed Ji Sung to the left. He jumped, crossing the prairie, and continued his pace. "Listen, kids, if you can't help yourself, no one will help you."
Ji Sung felt his belly complete, his vision blurred, yet, his feet hardly moved. He had not yet recovered from the last ordeal, and now that bastard was pushing him to swim.
He tried his best, but once again, his legs whetted, and his stamina was almost non-exist. He hardly breathes, let alone passing a voice.
Then at the last moment, Kang Seon Jin baited him off the water, pulling him to the ground.
"You're still breathing, kid?"
Ji Sung, at fours, coughed, his entire body washed by sewer water, and his shirt was shuttered. He vomited all the water and whatever entered his mouth. Seriously, what is wrong with this man?
"See, I told you, you can swim." Kang Seon Jin patted Ji Sung's back.
"Shut the fuck off!" Ji Sung was shooting Jin's palm. "I could die, you know!" Then continued to vomit every crap from inside his belly.
"Yet you are not. Here, here." Kang Seon Jin was stumpy and gave Ji Sung a cigarette. "Here."
"What is it? Are you nuts?! I almost drowned, yet you gave me a cigarette?!"
"Then what do you need? Water? There, you could drink more." He kicked Ji Sung back into the sewer river.
"Seriously? I will kill you!"
"Yeah yeah, whatever." Smoking, he following Ji Sung casually like nothing happen, yet, his mole keep Ji Sung company. "Take the turn on the right, the right!" He kicked Ji Sung's head before he could get out of the water.
Ji Sung was really on his limit, et, and somehow, his feet kept struggling and propelled him from drowning. He floated something that made him laugh. "I can swim!"
"Oh, what great news."
He was flaunting his head and trying to get out of the water, but again, Kang Seon Jin pushed his head by foot.
"Not yet, Kiddo. Not yet. There, take a heavy turn before you hit the waterfall."
"What do you say?" As Ji Sung turned over, he realized a stream was before him, sucking him down. He yelled in terror, yet, no one give him a hand.
Yet, the Bastard stood watching, with smoke on his right hand. "Come on, Kid. You can do it!"
"Bastard! If I die, I will hunt you forever!"
"Ooh, you want to stay with me? That sweat! Cool! Now, try to survive!"
What could he do? Even a gold medal in the Olympics would hardly survive this. Let alone Ji Sung, who had just learned to swim with his stamina already drained. He is still being sucked in yet, at the last moment, Kang Seon Jin pulls him off.
"See, you can do it." He threw his cigarette away. "Every human had this power, the power to survive. The power to snatch life on the jaw of the dead."
Ji Sung wants to punch him in the face, yet, he can't even talk back. If this Bastard threw him back into the water, he would surely die.
"Listen, Kid. You must thank me. See, I teach you how to swim." He sneered, tugging Ji Sung's choker, dragging him like a trash bag. He stopped for a while, checking Ji Sung's breath by putting his finger on his nostril. He continued tugging him away.
"Look, I'm doing this for your own sake. Man must be able to swim. He must, for him, save someone who drowned. You listen to me, Kid? Man must be strong, not become a crap who lives under a woman's thump. Yes, you must respect them, but you are not supposed to be their toy. I shame on you. How could you sell yourself to her? Who is that girl's name?"
"You… bastard."
"Bastard? What a good name!" He laughed.
He decided not to answer. He listened to his jabbering, and somehow, that voice became a song for him to stay awake.
It's fate. Ji Sung meets Kang Seon Jin, but what kind of fate? He realized that Jin brought him to some strange door. Then, they came to the jungle.
He tried to ask where they were, but he couldn't because he was too weak to do that.
They stopped. Beneath a milky way and thousands of stars, Ji Sung lies on lust green grass. The soothing warm breeze hammered his skin. The air was so clear, yet it felt strange. They just come out from the sewer. Where is it supposed to be?
"Listen carefully, Kid. I am not going to babysit you. You must learn to make honest ka-ching. Sleep well. I guarantee tonight. You will be safe. But…." –He placed a wooden block on Ji Sung's stomach and pestered Ji Sung to take a strange pill– "When the sun rises, you must get ready for anything. That is, Kid. May we meet again."
He stood up and left Ji Sung alone in an open space with his trail of smoke. Yet, his humming still tortured Ji Sung from afar until it went away entirely.
"Kang Seon Jin. I hate you, Bastard…."
Slowly his vision faded, and his ear switched off. Everything went dark. Kang Seon Jin, Ji Sung will remember that name.