Chapter 47
Hongju returned with slow steps. He handed over the collected chips and the signed IOU to Guppping.
"Aww, our Hongju must be feeling neglected today—didn’t even get hit once, huh?"
Guppping snickered as he stuffed the IOU into the inside of his jacket. A man shuffling the cards chimed in with a mocking laugh.
"What, you get off on getting hit or something?"
Though the question was clearly aimed at him, Hongju said nothing. He just quietly lowered his head and turned away. With the noisy, filthy house at his back, he slowly stepped outside.
He’d gone in and out of gambling houses more times than he could count while collecting debts. Sometimes he got beaten and thrown out by the head of security at the entrance, sometimes he came up empty-handed. Still, he didn’t exactly hate walking through these places. Maybe, deep down, he’d been looking for someone. His only blood relative, whose face he couldn’t even fully remember.
"Why the hell did you flinch like that, dumbass."
Once he was outside, Hongju headed for a dark corner where no light reached. His legs gave out, and he slumped to the ground, berating himself. How many people in the world had the surname Gu, and he’d flinched just because of a name?
"Haa..."
A long sigh escaped, forming a faint white cloud in the cold air. Hongju swallowed the heavy pain weighing on his chest.
And what would he even do if they met? Demand his life back? Tell him to pay off the rest of the debt? Did he really think someone like that would even listen? Someone who hadn’t shown his face once in the fifteen years Guppping had run the house? Why would he care now?
Hongju raked his hair in frustration, used ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) to swallowing his pain. A twig snapped nearby. But he only realized someone was there when a long shadow stretched out near his feet. Looking up hastily, he saw a familiar face.