Chapter 37: The Weight of Freedom

Money is the greatest comfort.

I won’t bother denying that statement.

The most basic tool used to define the value of things, a medium for exchanging goods, and the very object of wealth accumulation itself — a product born from capitalism.

“That doesn’t mean you should get the wrong idea. I’m only taking precautions so there won’t be any trouble later.”

Honestly, it would be a lie to say my pride wasn’t hurt.

If I hadn’t been someone constantly chased by money, and forced to chase after it in return, I would’ve firmly refused after everything I’d suffered until now.

“There’s nothing better than money when it comes to shutting people up. Everyone knows that, don’t they?”

But would that really be worth more than the money now placed in my hands?

Other than briefly satisfying my pride and easing my mood for a moment, making some dramatic gesture wouldn’t change my reality in any noticeable way.

If anything, I’d probably just get cursed at for foolishly throwing away money I barely managed to receive.

“…Thank you.”

I carefully hugged the thick stack of checks inside the white envelope to my chest.

It felt like tears were about to spill out, but I desperately held them back.

“Tomorrow morning, the center will be conducting a building safety inspection. The electricity in the audit room on the first floor will be cut for around twenty to thirty minutes. Watch the timing and use that chance to leave.”

“Yes.”

“From this moment onward, I sincerely hope we never cross paths again.”

And just like that, the past three years at the center came to a hollow end.

Thunk—

“Ah….”

A short groan escaped me as the long needle pierced my skin.

Kim Kyungwoon stared at the constantly fluctuating numbers with a grave expression before rubbing the injection site and dragging several machines from the corner of the examination room over to me.

The machine looked strangely familiar.

It was the exact same kind I’d seen right before entering the center — when the chip had first been implanted inside my body.

“Jaeyoon, how do you feel?”

“…A little stiff, but I think I’m okay.”

“I’ll remove the chip like you requested, but cutting open the area is unavoidable. Once the anesthesia wears off, there’ll probably be some pain. Still, the incision won’t be very large, so as long as you take proper care of it afterward, you should be able to continue daily life without much trouble.”

“Thank you.”

The sensation throughout my body gradually dulled.

Kim Kyungwoon pressed the power button on the machine and entered a sequence of serial numbers before bringing a hose shaped like a conch shell to the back of my neck.

At the same time, I felt the sharp blade of a scalpel slicing through my skin.

There was no pain, but the feeling of warm blood running along my collarbone made my skin crawl.

The metallic scent of blood — the same nauseating smell I’d grown sick of during the terrorist attack at the department store — spread throughout the cramped examination room.

Thunk—

“Ugh….”

“If it hurts, you need to tell me immediately, Jaeyoon.”

“Yes.”

The conch-shaped hose pressed into the opened flesh.

A gradual pressure built up before the tiny chip — no larger than a child’s fingernail — was sucked tightly against the hose and pulled from my body in one swift motion.

The chip that branded me as property of the center, the same chip that had hung around my neck like a leash all this time, was finally removed.

And as if it were a lie, the crushing weight clouding my head suddenly disappeared.

The red dot on the screen that displayed the implant subject’s location vanished as well.

Now, even the center director himself could no longer track my whereabouts or come after me whenever he pleased.

No one could follow behind me anymore.

At last, I had finally gained true freedom.

“Jaeyoon, I’m going to stitch the wound closed now, so don’t move. I’ll dispose of the chip immediately, so don’t worry.”

“…Okay.”

“And regarding what you told me earlier — since resigning normally isn’t an option for you, we’ll probably need to find another way to get medicine too. Actually, an old friend of mine works as a drug dealer in District 3’s relief zone. It’s illegal, but the medications are leftovers diverted through distributors, so there’s not much difference compared to what’s sold on the regular market.”

Drug dealer.

It was slang for underground pharmaceutical traffickers who had existed since the wars between special districts began.

Using connections with high-ranking medical center officials, they smuggled out restricted medicine unavailable to ordinary citizens and sold them to lower districts at outrageous prices.

Over time, their influence had grown so large that they now owned massive operations in every district.

Still, rumors claimed they rarely showed themselves in public, making it nearly impossible for ordinary people to even contact them.

And even if someone succeeded, they’d usually be thrown out before negotiations could begin unless they had extremely powerful backing.

So how exactly did Kim Kyungwoon, of all people, have connections to them?

“…I’ve wanted to ask you this before.”

“Yes, Jaeyoon.”

“Three years ago when we first met, and even now… you always helped me even though you knew it would only hurt you in the end. I know it’s a little late to ask, but I genuinely can’t understand.”

“……”

“Why are you helping me?”

I asked quietly while Kim Kyungwoon carefully treated the wound on my neck.

After a long pause, he answered in a voice damp with emotion.

“Jaeyoon… did you know?”

“……”

“Sometimes people stake their lives on things that seem completely insignificant.”

Kim Kyungwoon placed a regenerative bandage over the wound before removing his glasses and continuing.

“When I was young, I had a little sister. She was born very late, so there was a big age gap between us. She adored me and followed me everywhere… but around twenty years ago, she was shot and killed by rebels.”

“…Ah.”

“I think that was when I decided I wanted to become a doctor.”

“……”

“But reality wasn’t that simple. Someone like me, who had nothing but his own body to rely on, could never realistically afford expensive tuition and earn a degree.”

Kim Kyungwoon’s face remained calm as he spoke about his past.

He tore a page from his notebook and carefully wrote down the address of the shop, the medicines I needed, the quantities, and the prices.

“So I started selling drugs. Back then I wandered from place to place just trying to survive, and by chance, a manufacturer involved in drug distribution noticed me.”

“……”

“The reason he took me into his operation was simple. I was the only person there who could read.”

I’d never once imagined Kim Kyungwoon had worked as a drug dealer.

Unsure how to react, I awkwardly parted my lips before simply staying silent and listening.

“Once I became capable of at least feeding myself, I threw myself into work day and night. Eventually, I earned enough money to enter university, but just as expected, my origins held me back.”

“…Doctor.”

“I never exchanged more than a few words with my classmates during my entire university life. I tried everything to fit in with them, but the reason they rejected me was always the same.”

“….”

“What was so important about where I came from that people hated me for it? Eventually, I started pretending not to care. Pretending to be fine. I studied without sleep for entire weeks, ranked first in my department, even earned favor from professors who weren’t prejudiced… but none of that solved the real problem.”

Tears welled in Kim Kyungwoon’s eyes.

He bit down on his dry lips over and over before clenching both fists tightly and wiping away the tears rolling down his face.

The man who always appeared composed was now breaking down even more violently than I was — more than someone who’d been sentenced to death, more than someone who’d just been thrown out of the center.

“Nothing changed after I entered the center either. To the people of this district, refugees would always remain outsiders. Which meant I would always be rejected by the majority.”

“……”

“And then you appeared in front of me, Jaeyoon. Like a miracle.”

And finally, I understood.

Why Kim Kyungwoon had sacrificed himself so much just to help me.

“It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? You spent your entire life in hell inside that center, and yet I found comfort just from watching you survive it.”

“……”

“But it’s true. Seeing someone as young as you become the dedicated guide for Assault Team 3… that alone became a source of strength for me. The only thing we really had in common was being refugees from conflict zones, but somehow, just thinking about your existence gave me strength.”

My chest tightened for an entirely different reason.

The hand gripping the bedsheet slowly turned pale white.

Within Kim Kyungwoon’s honest confession, I saw myself reflected back at me.

Pretending to stay composed because I feared being hated.

Clinging desperately to someone from the same homeland as a source of comfort.

In so many ways, Kim Kyungwoon and I were painfully alike.

“…I always wanted to tell you someday.”

“……”

“Thank you for enduring all this. Thank you for becoming my hope. And I’m sorry. I knew how pathetic it was to find comfort in your suffering, but I couldn’t stop. If I didn’t cling to even that, I felt like I would collapse.”

Even someone as insignificant as me had once become another person’s support.

Another person’s hero.

All those years I spent abusing myself and believing I was worthless suddenly felt meaningless.

Because to someone else, I had still managed to become a hero.

“I’m truly… truly sorry.”

“Hngh….”

Crying in the middle of treatment was humiliating, but there was nothing I could do to stop the tears.

Why did we have to spend our entire lives buried beneath shadows because of problems we never once chose for ourselves?

“I’ll do anything I can for you, so please… please become happy, Jaeyoon.”

“…Ugh… sob….”

“You deserve that much.”

Our circumstances were simply too painful, too heartbreaking.

And aside from clutching my chest in grief, there was nothing else I could do for Kim Kyungwoon.

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