Chapter 30

Chapter 30

"I'm Jeong-su."

I roughly wiped the blood dripping down the jaw with the back of my hand and slowly walked out under the streetlight.

In the process of covering Dong-myeong and running earlier, beaten ruthless all over, back and waist and limbs, the whole body was screaming.

Especially in the melee I had properly taken one somewhere, face or head, from a club the guys swung, and because of the adrenaline of having to live I had not even known exact where I was hit at the time.

Only the hot blood covering the eye area and flowing down the cheek was covering half my face eerie, like a person in a horror movie.

Senior Sergeant David, confirming me, flinched startled and approached with a stiff face.

He scanned fast my face a blood mess and the work uniform a wreck, then furrowed his brow serious.

"Jesus······. You're the Korean Gary mentioned. The face is a mess, I called an ambulance, so for now sit still."

"It's fine. No place the bone is hurt. Somewhere on the head side tore, so only a bit much blood. Thanks to you coming fast after the call, I lived. Thank you, Sergeant David."

Answering calm, laughing with a blood-covered face, David looked back and forth at Dong-myeong trembling pale behind me and the clubs rolling on the ground.

"The situation, looking rough, the estimate comes. Did you fight them?"

"No. They flocked in a crowd in the middle of the city and lynched, so I didn't mix a fist once and only ran getting hit one-sided. I blocked a bit with the body to save my younger brother here."

At my answer a cold smile spread at David's mouth.

Not simple assault, but grievous bodily harm by many holding weapons.

The victim took one-sided assault enough to become a blood mess, and no trace of resistance.

From the police side, no need to write a statement headache as mutual assault, a perfect picture to feed the guys the maximum sentence.

"Very wise, Jeong-su. I see why Gary praised you."

David lightly tapped my shoulder, but it hurt and I nearly screamed a moment.

When I twisted my face, Sergeant David said natural.

"Oh! Sorry. Then get treated well and come out later for a witness interview."

David walked with long steps toward Park Ji-hun, face slammed on the ground, with a comic smile.

"Let this go! Let this go!! We just... ukeuk!"

Park Ji-hun struggled and tried to argue in clumsy English, but a big officer beside pressed the back of his neck with a knee without mercy.

"Shut up. You are arrested flagrante for multiple special injury and assault possessing weapons. You may exercise the right to remain silent..."

When David recited the Miranda principle in a dry voice, Park Ji-hun's face went white like paper.

Or not? Is the breath really going over?

The guy twisted his whole body, then suddenly turned his head and looked at me standing under the streetlight.

A look escorted by Australian police, covered in blood.

And the blood covering my face was proving the tremendous sentence that would fall on them soon.

Only then Park Ji-hun, as if realizing what he had done, began trembling like an aspen.

I led the throbbing body and slowly approached near Park Ji-hun.

Park Ji-hun, still face down on the ground, looked up at me and ground his teeth.

Squinting the left eye blood had flowed into, I asked looking at the guy.

"I said. You picked the wrong person today."

"Heuk, H, Han Jeong-su... you... how are you with the Australian police..."

"See this blood? Blood from one of you bastards hitting my head with a club earlier."

I said cold to the guy in Korean.

"Park Ji-hun. You're finished now. Special injury and possessing a weapon? Tomorrow the documents go to Immigration and your visa gets cancelled right away, and you'll rot a few years in prison, go through an immigration detention center, and get deported to Korea. That bastard who put money in your hand and said pickle me... now that you're useless, will that bastard defend you? Australian lawyer fees are tremendous? No?"

At the fact hitting the bone, Park Ji-hun's pupils shook like mad.

The guy would know by instinct too.

The fact they would be discarded as consumables.

I did not miss the gap and tightened the guy's breath.

"If you don't want the tail cut and to take the blame alone in prison, talk fast. Who? The person who gave you money and had you do the job."

Park Ji-hun's lips, swept in fear and betrayal, trembled, then soon a hoarse voice leaked as if resigned.

"A, Andy... Andy Hong... Hyung Andy in Brisbane... runs Korean farm contractors and share houses in Australia. The request came Saturday evening. Step you, Han Jeong-su, and send you to Korea."

"Why?"

"...Don't know."

Aigu. An idiot bastard.

A real minnow who knew nothing.

'Andy Hong.'

At least the name behind popped out.

The identity of the parasite sticking a straw in Australian working-holiday people.

"Take them!"

Then, when David's order fell, the police grabbed the napes of Park Ji-hun and the gang and began stuffing them like luggage into the back seats of the patrol cars.

The guys resigned with heads drooped, or cried and shouted "Please! Sorry!", but Australian public power had no mercy.

David, who had cleared the seven thugs like waste disposal in an instant, approached me.

"I'll identity-check those guys and shake them down clean, visa problems and tax and illegal-contractor charges. It'll be very fat results."

"Good I lessened the trouble. Ah, and Sergeant David. Before you go, there's one thing you should know."

I wiped the bloodied forehead and lowered my voice.

"A moment ago, before you came, I shook those guys' mouths a bit, and this wasn't simply neighborhood thugs acting from being pissed. There's a backing that commissioned the lynching on me."

"A backing? They took someone's contract?"

David's eyes sharpened in an instant.

"Yes. From Park Ji-hun's words, a person called Andy Hong in Brisbane seems the boss. He runs Korean contractors in Australia and the farm-side share houses and pickup service, he says. Probably a fairly large organization."

At my words David took out a notebook with a serious face and quickly wrote the name Brisbane — Andy Hong.

"Andy Hong in Brisbane······. Good. Your statement and those guys' call records just now, and the accounts, I'll trace all and tie the backing. I thought it was simple assault, and it'll grow into a syndicate sweep. Thanks for the information, Jeong-su. I'll look into it sure, so answer if I call."

"Please. Soon I'll buy a beer with Foreman Gary, so keep the time."

David nodded and imitated a salute, and soon four patrol cars flashed the light bars noisy and left the lot carrying the guys.

And almost at the same time, a heavy ambulance siren was heard from far.

"······Hyung."

Dong-myeong, tension fully let go, sat down hard and looked up at me welling tears.

"Hyung... heuk, because of me... blood on the face like this..."

"Aigu, disgusting kid! Don't cry, get up. The ambulance came. The body aches to death, so let's go to the hospital first."

Handed to the paramedics, I was loaded on a stretcher and transferred to the emergency room of a general hospital near the city.

Australia's emergency room, unless about to die, waiting hours is basic, but being a blood-covered special-assault victim loaded on an ambulance, I could go straight into the treatment room without waiting.

Lying on the emergency bed, the nurse wiped the blood-caked face with saline and said.

"For now take the top off."

Taking the clothes off at the nurse's words, the nurse makes a surprised face.

In a loose work uniform it doesn't show, but a body trained with exercise in its way.

Ahem!

"You were hit a lot."

And touching light, goosebumps rose at the cold tip of the nurse's hand.

"Ukeuk!"

The nurse took the hand off and said.

"For now there are bruises all over, so you have to take an X-ray. Especially the head and the left arm, required."

"Where is the blood coming from?"

"The forehead right above the eyebrow tore long."

Soon a doctor came in, saw me, nodded, and stitched the torn spot careful.

Even with anesthetic it hurt tremendously.

'Shit!'

After that, supported by Dong-myeong, I moved to the X-ray room and photographed the whole body.

Fortunately there was no wound as big as worried.

Heaven's luck for a situation of clubs running wild.

But a problem was found in the left forearm that had reflexively blocked the guy's club at the start.

"The bone isn't broken, but from the impact a fine crack went in the bone."

The doctor explained, pointing at the X-ray.

"Not enough for a full cast, but for a while until the bone knits you have to do a half cast and fix it. Absolutely don't lift heavy things or move the arm excessive."

In the end thick gauze stuck on the torn forehead, and a half cast on the left arm, a state of hanging an arm sling on the neck.

For a few days, site or house repair seemed too much.

Finishing treatment like that, waiting for the prescription, I headed for the payment window.

"Patient, today's ambulance call cost, emergency consultation, X-ray, suture and cast cost, total······."

The payment clerk tapped a calculator, then held out a long receipt with a business smile.

"2,550 dollars."

"······Yes? How much?"

A moment I doubted my ears.

Opening the throbbing eyes wide, I stared through the number stamped on the receipt.

The number really wasn't wrong.

"No, stitched the eyebrow a bit, took an X-ray, and put one half cast, two thousand five hundred fifty dollars?! What hospital bill... no, you called an ambulance and you charge separate again?!"

"Yes. The ambulance fee alone is over 600 dollars. The detailed breakdown is on the receipt."

At the clerk's firm answer I gasped and drew an empty breath.

A consultation fee that in Korea, health insurance applied, would end at a hundred-some thousand won at most, in Australia had transformed into an amount matching a month's rent of a city-center apartment.

I couldn't feel it even hearing American medical insurance was expensive, and coming to Australia I feel it.

'Crazy Australian hospital bill! Called an ambulance and burned six hundred dollars?! Is this a country?!'

Seeing living money leave my account right then was a more terrible pain than being hit with a club.

Dong-myeong, who had been watching my mood beside, made a long face and said.

"Hyung, I'm really sorry... I'll work and later repay all the hospital bill for sure."

"Shut up. Why would you pay my hospital bill."

I spun my head quick even while shedding blood tears inside.

The comprehensive insurance for students and working-holiday people I had heard at the Korean agency when coming to Australia rose.

For now claim with that and I could get a fair part back.

And another card flashing through the brain.

"Excuse me."

I set the receipt down and asked the payment clerk serious.

"I work at Crane Australia now, and the company has me on 100 percent WorkCover. By any chance, does WorkCover apply to an assault that happened on the way home after work too?"

The clerk blinked at my question a moment, then began tapping the computer monitor as if checking the manual.

"For injury occurring on the commute, a journey claim, WorkCover can be approved depending on the situation. Especially if the police attended, with a police report number and the employer's confirmation, after review you may be compensated the full hospital bill and part of the wages for the period you cannot work."

At those words I cheered inside.

Of course it isn't a formal finish, but still, wouldn't it be possible?

Match words with Foreman Gary or Sergeant David's side, and it seemed I could cover enough.

No, to protect my blood-like 2,550 dollars, I had to do whatever.

"Good. For now I'll pay with my personal card, so pull all the diagnosis for the WorkCover claim and the diagnosis for the police station, and the documents. Tomorrow I'll get the case number at the station and put a claim in at the company."

Scraping the card and turning with the receipt bundle, I looked down at the hurt arm.

Though I suffered a crack in the arm and stitching the forehead, I moved the police and cleared Park Ji-hun's lot all, and even learned the identity of the backing aiming me, called Andy Hong.

'Andy Hong or whatever. I'll show you sure who you touched!'

If it doesn't work, I'll really lie down in front of the police station.

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