#01

Flowers bloom and wither, the moon rises and sets. Life and death, humbly accepting the laws of nature, are so quiet, yet beasts are noisy both at birth and at death. It seems there’s no way around it, just like flowers and the moon, but only beasts cannot hide their agitation.

Today, a man cried sorrowfully, defying the laws of nature.

It was truly terrifying, even though his body was not dead.

Only then did the man understand the noise of the beasts.

Perhaps flowers and the moon also cried out.

Was it not that they simply appeared calm because they lacked the vocal cords to make a sound?

Everything that exists in life and death, even the weeds and stones trampled underfoot, must have wanted their final journey to be loud.

Thinking this way, he regretted not crying out louder.

*

D-3

An ashtray flew in. It wasn’t thrown to hit him, so Lee Seon-jae skillfully dodged it without provoking his uncle and stepfather, Lee Seok-doo. From the looks of him, he seemed like he would explode any moment, but his uncle was as healthy as the now thirty-one-year-old Seon-jae.

Next to his uncle stood Lee Hyun-joon, looking like a dwarf with his arms crossed, looking down. He was so short that there was hardly any difference from Seon-jae, who was sitting.

Lee Hyun-joon was a collection of the bad genes from his aunt and uncle. He inherited his aunt’s short stature and his uncle’s ugly face, and on top of that, he evenly inherited all the bad traits of both their personalities. In contrast, his cousin Seon-jae was a man who had it all. Except for money and family, that is.

“I’ll give you a month. Get that land contract within a month.”

His uncle said in a hoarse voice.

“Yes. Understood.”

Seon-jae replied simply and brushed off the ash from his jacket. As he stood up to bow and turn to leave at the gesture to go, his uncle asked, “Can you send someone with me?”

“I’m fine.”

The people his uncle sent were all incompetent. They claimed to be graduates of four-year universities, but whether it was because their heads were stuck up their asses, they couldn’t even do the tasks assigned to them properly. The number of people Seon-jae had fired was more than ten fingers could count. Yet, his uncle continued to try to send people along. He believed that a man doing great things should have subordinates to manage.

“Are you trying to save face by doing it alone?”

“That’s easier. The old man doesn’t like it when there are too many people around.”

“Tsk. If you’re getting older, you should eat properly.”

His uncle clicked his tongue.

“Didn’t I tell you not to stand out?”

Suddenly, Lee Hyun-joon interjected.

His uncle frowned, perhaps displeased with his son’s question. Unaware of this, Lee Hyun-joon smirked.

“Well, if that were the case, you would have already signed the contract, right?”

As he replied with a grin, Lee Hyun-joon twitched his lips.

“Stop talking nonsense and go out.”

If his uncle hadn’t been there, he would have teased him, saying, “With a face like yours, you wouldn’t stand a chance with either a woman or a man.” He felt a bit disappointed.

Seon-jae opened the heavy iron door and got into the elevator. After pressing the button for the first floor, he loosened his tie in the rattling elevator. Recently, the tie had been unbearably tight. With a ding, the door opened. He stepped out of the old building without a second thought.

He quickly left the fishy-smelling fish market and took a deep breath. He glanced back at the building he had just rushed out of.

Ilgwang Financial. The name sounded decent, but in reality, it was a loan shark. Of course, it didn’t only do loan sharking. It dabbled in everything that made money, including auctions, stocks, and real estate, and recently focused on construction and demolition services. Unlike other corporate gangsters, they never touched drugs, human trafficking, or entertainment businesses, which was a characteristic that made them seem like a somewhat legitimate company.

From a mere thug to the head of a company with nearly a hundred employees, his uncle, despite being a billionaire, rented a shabby five-story building in the market that looked like it could collapse at any moment. While other corporate gangsters had expanded into Myeongdong, Jongno, and Gangnam after making enormous profits from interest around the time of the IMF, his uncle still insisted on this building. He understood the reason well. The rent was cheap, and the transportation was convenient. There was no better place for VIPs to come and go secretly. Still, why did it have to be next to a fish market?

Seon-jae shuddered at the fishy smell and moved on. He wandered through the narrow market and entered a small coffee shop. The owner, looking to be in her mid-fifties, greeted Seon-jae warmly.

“Oh, why is it so hard to see your face these days? Have you been busy?”

Originally called ‘Jeong Dabang,’ the shop changed its name to ‘Ogoganeun Jeong Coffee Shop’ last autumn. The sign had changed, but the interior and operation remained just like the old tea house.

Madam Jeong, known as the tea house owner, was a big player in the market. It was said that anyone who had done business without using Madam Jeong’s money was a spy, as she had been a financial backbone for merchants for many years. His uncle had no interest in small change, so he didn’t pay attention to Jeong Dabang, and small loan sharks had known her for so long that they were generally friendly.

Familiar old men, who had been there for who knows how long, were drinking Sanghwa tea while groping the thighs of the tea house’s hostess.

“Shall I get you iced coffee?”

“Please give me a beer, sister.”

Seon-jae cheekily called the woman, who was about his mother’s age, “sister.”

Madam Jeong soon brought a tray with two bottles of beer, two glasses, and peanuts, sitting down across from Seon-jae. She poured beer into both his glass and her own.

“Oh, refreshing. By the way, this manager is looking more and more like a man as the days go by. You should catch a nice girl and get married before you get too old. It would be a shame to waste your looks.”

Madam Jeong always brought up marriage whenever she saw Seon-jae, a topic his mother wouldn’t even mention. She worried as if it were her own business, saying it would be a shame to waste his looks and that he should build a proper family.

“Isn’t it a waste of looks for you to say that, sister? Why does time seem to pass you by alone?”

He changed the subject and emptied his beer glass.

“If you can’t even say that.”

Madam Jeong shot him a sidelong glance with a face full of smiles.

“I haven’t seen the little boss around lately. He must be very busy?”

“Really? He hasn’t come at all?”

“Yeah. It’s been about two weeks. He used to come so often to see Miss Choi that the threshold was worn down, but now he’s completely stopped coming. The kid seems to have lost his charm, but he used to bring in good sales.”

She then smacked her lips as if regretting it.

His cell phone vibrated. Seon-jae took out his black Motorola StarTAC. Madam Jeong moved aside to give him space.

“This is Lee Seon-jae.”

It’s me, Bae Young-do.

“Yes. Go ahead.”

Oh. I’ve been well. You’ve been well too, right?

Bae Young-do, Seon-jae’s informant, mocked him in his characteristic tone for not greeting him.

“Just get to the point, don’t you know?”

Seon-jae chuckled and replied sarcastically.

You’re something else, really.

“Is everything okay?”

Of course, there is.

Bae Young-do said with a hint of arrogance.

Your little boss has been busy lately.

Today, everyone seemed to be talking about the little boss. It seemed that the guy was actually doing something.

“Please tell me.”

That guy got scammed in Pangyo, but it turns out he orchestrated it?

“Yes.”

Seon-jae wasn’t surprised, as he had somewhat expected it. He was just a bit puzzled. He never imagined that his father would be the target of a scam. He pondered for a moment whether Lee Hyun-joon was the type of man who could pull off such a scheme. No, Lee Hyun-joon was not the kind of guy who had that kind of guts. So while he had expected it, perhaps the feeling of disbelief was stronger.

Why is your reaction like that? Did you know?

“No. That can’t be.”

Oh, come on. At least pretend to be surprised.

Bae Young-do, who was somewhat haughty yet oddly coy, rambled on about the findings he had gathered.

He put a bounty of fifty million won on a fictional scammer while being the one who scammed. Honestly, does it make sense for a company with gangsters to be running around with a bounty? We’re not fools, you know. Anyway, the conclusion is that the bastard embezzled three billion won, and his old man turned a blind eye to it. It seems that the arm bends inward after all. Seeing that the stingy old man is quiet after being scammed out of a fortune.

Seon-jae listened quietly.

As Bae Young-do said, his uncle was keeping quiet even though he knew his son was doing something shameful. Seon-jae knew that he was not the kind of person to do that. What was the reason Lee Hyun-joon, who sat in the vice president’s seat, had never touched the company’s money?

Yet, his uncle, who couldn’t even trust his own son, had turned a blind eye to the fact that he had scammed three billion won. Either he was nearing death or had some weakness held over him. At this point, he couldn’t help but be curious about Lee Hyun-joon’s cunning, having experienced all sorts of ups and downs.

Oh, by the way, they’ve been tailing you too. Are you okay?

“Yes. I’m fine.”

Well, you have nothing to worry about, right?

“If you’re done talking, I’ll hang up.”

As Seon-jae was about to hang up, Bae Young-do grumbled.

You really have no sense of humanity. I’ve been doing this for twenty years, and people like you…

“Please go ahead.”

Wait a minute!!

Bae Young-do shouted. His voice was so loud that it echoed in his ears.

I almost forgot to tell you something important.

“What is it?”

I heard you’ve been going around looking for the old man’s burial site lately?

“How did you know that?”

Seon-jae straightened up.

How would I know? I heard it from the little boss. You know Gwangjang-dong Octopus Head, right? He went to him to find the burial site of the old man and asked him to find out more about the landowner. That’s what I heard. Is there something going on with your company lately? Why is the management completely falling apart?

A hollow laugh escaped him. Bae Young-do was worrying about Seon-jae’s company.