PB

CHAPTER 1

Then a year passed and it became early summer. While guys my age have entered college and enjoyed college life for 2 years, I was still making money by threatening people. That day, I had a strangely bad morning. The boyfriend who was often tricked by his entertainment companies, came by a few days ago excitedly saying that this casting was real. If that was true, I'd be robbed of money again. Even thinking about it, his excited face strangely offended me. As I drank until dawn, I woke up late and left the house to go to the lender's office, but someone was waiting for me nearby.

"Hyung."

When I turned my head to a familiar voice, I saw my younger brother, who I saw when I went home a month ago, standing there in a middle school uniform that didn't fit his body.

"What?"

Why are you here during school time? As I frowned and approached the skinny kid, he opened his mouth to speak bluntly.

"Mom is sick."

"So?"

"..."

"What do you want me to do about that?"

"...Money. Mom's hospital bills."

He must have hated saying that, as my brother's mouth closed and twisted. I didn't hide my irritation and took my wallet out of my pocket and checked the 10,000 won bills inside.

"How much?"

"How much can you give me?"

I stopped trying to take out the 10,000 won bills and asked the first question that I should have asked.

"What's wrong with her?"

"...I don't know. She suddenly collapsed and needs to get surgery."

Thanks to me working without a single day off, I was able to take out a 10,000 won bill, thinking about my mother who always lived with minor ailments.

"Here."

My brother took the money slowly, counted the money in his hand and asked bluntly again.

"Can you give me more?"

"Then how much is the hospital fee?"

"4.2 million won."

"...What?"

Exactly how sick is she... The words I wanted to say did not come out of my mouth as I looked at my brother. It's hard to tell when he had grown up so big, but my brother now looked like a person who was borrowing money from someone else and not his family member. As if he didn't want to get involved with me anymore.

"Can you give it to me? I'll give it back later."

How can you pay me back? I barely swallowed my words and looked at my watch.

"Come back later in the afternoon. I'm going to collect money today, so I can give you half if not all."

Then, my brother nodded once, turned around and disappeared. Seeing my brother disappear, I realised that he must have been waiting here for hours. I'm going to have to ask a favor that I don't want to.

The bad feeling I got today persisted as I went to collect money. Today, I had to collect from a couple running a Pojangmacha*. Compared to the couple who's in their early 40s, their child is only about 3 years old now. But because there was something wrong with the child's leg, they had to borrow money to do the surgery. They cherished him because he is the only child they have at this late age, but because of him, they had to spend all of their monthly income to pay off their debts. But it was hard to make ends meet and in the end, they still could not pay the interest for three months already. This is the fourth time I have visited this couple. Every time I've been leaving empty-handed, but I can't afford to do that today. The reason is because I also need money so I'm going to use a method that I don't use often.