A Taste to Spit Out - Chapter 33

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He slowly lowered his hips onto his thighs. Flinch—his large body stiffened like a stone. Although he was wearing swim trunks that came just above his knees, there was no way to cover the bulge that had grown large around his crotch.

“Why are you doing this?”

Kang Yeol-jin asked. His breath, filled with that distinct smell of water, spread thickly around them.

“Because I want to know everything.”

What am I forgetting? What am I missing? In the past, what possessed me to choose to marry you? What was blinding my eyes?

At that, Kang Yeol-jin picked up the whiskey glass beside him and tipped his head back with a sudden motion. Gulp, he carelessly downed the drink on the rocks.

Slowly, I wiped the liquid seeping through his lips with my thumb. I looked up at him as I sucked my thumb with a slurp. His gaze briefly became damp, then he let out a laugh as if he couldn’t believe it.

I followed him, smiling slowly. The hot scent of alcohol spread inside my tightly closed lips. Even that tiny amount made me feel a bit intoxicated.

“He was taking a bath, filling the tub with water. He was drinking whiskey while listening to the radio.”

It was practically his only enjoyment. Having that old, worn-out radio next to him, tuning it manually to catch the frequency, and drinking two glasses of whiskey in time with the voices that came out.

“It seems like, while trying to lift his glass, he accidentally knocked over the radio beside him.”

“……”

“He was electrocuted.”

What a pitiful sight it must have been. So this is how your final moment turned out, barely, just barely.

“His whole body was burned.”

And so I just stared blankly at the water in the pool beyond. Kang Yeol-jin let out a hot breath. His steady breathing scattered against the nape of my neck.

“They said the electricity was running through the entire bathroom, so it was hard to rescue him quickly.”

“Was it just him who passed away?”

“Yeah, unfortunately, there was no one else around.”

Really? I slowly asked back.

“That’s strange. My father never took a bath alone without someone to attend to him.”

He always surrounded himself with young women who still hadn’t shed their innocence. He made them pour his drinks and scrub his body with a soapy shower ball. Just thinking about it disgusted me, so I pressed my lips tightly together. Small ripples formed on the surface of the water. It felt like a certain scene was about to rise to the surface, but it never quite came into focus. Something seemed within reach, yet I couldn’t grasp it.

“Because the entire bathroom was flooded with electricity, we had no choice but to tear it down.”

Electrocution… He was electrocuted…

I slowly turned my gaze toward Kang Yeol-jin. A thought came to me, and I whispered it to him. His eerie gaze stopped at my lips. He looked like he wanted to bite them at any moment.

“Can you give that to me?”

Then, gulp, Kang Yeol-jin swallowed dryly, his throat moving. His eyes measured me carefully, as if trying to guess what I meant—sharp and alert.

* * * * *

I was handed the radio.

I fumbled with the analog radio for no reason. It was an utterly ordinary radio, with silver buttons set against a brown background.

The frequency was stuck at 95.1. Carefully, I wrapped a towel around the tuning wheel and tried to turn it. But the wheel merely slipped, and the dial remained stubbornly fixed in place.

{95.1}

They said the time of death was between 4:00 and 4:20 PM on a weekday. Pyeongchang-dong had gone to the market, and only Ms. Yun-hye was at home.

I searched online to see what was being broadcast on 95.1 at that date and time. But nothing had been broadcast.

My father was an incredible penny-pincher. If he wasn’t going to listen, wouldn’t he have unplugged the power cord? Besides, he always listens to the radio while taking a bath…

Why, of all times, was he alone then?

I carefully stepped out of the room. I called for Ms. Yun-hye, who was in the kitchen. She had her back turned to me, so I approached her cautiously to avoid startling her and gently tapped her arm.