By Zephyria Click. Lighting a cigarette, Mu-won looked beside him.
“Want one?”
President Choi, standing a couple of paces away, shook his head with a displeased face. Soon, his distorted expression was hidden behind the long, drifting clouds of grey smoke.
“Ah, did you say you were quitting smoking?”
President Choi bit his tongue to suppress the curses wanting to burst out at the attitude of this arrogant gangster who didn’t have a shred of courtesy. Instead, what leaked out was a hollow laugh.
“Chairman Hwang must be full even without eating. To have such a splendid young man reliably guarding his side.”
“Why, do you really want me as a son-in-law?”
At the sudden outburst of nonsense, President Choi couldn’t hide his humiliation, as if he had been drenched in sewage. Mu-won gave a short laugh at the hypocrisy of President Choi, who loathed gangsters, and shifted his gaze. Thick cigarette smoke spread across the garden before them.
Among the five cities surrounding The Center, Byeolwon-si was a place where high-ranking officials frequently visited, with luxury restaurants and bars standing like small fortresses, wearing elegant masks. One of them, a Korean restaurant, had poured money into every corner to boast a level of formality equal to a countryside fortress.
Long eaves with roof tiles lined the stone walls, and to cross the threshold, one had to pass through a black-lacquered Hongsalmun gate. The evergreen garden, with its ornamental trees, stone statues, and ponds, had been planted, trimmed, and dug out according to feng shui to stand exactly in their places.
The interior of the restaurant was structured to be strictly divided by sliding doors in each section. The room they entered, stepping on polished black stone, was no different from a secret chamber. In a restaurant that sold space more than food, what happened inside did not leak out. The Korean restaurant ‘Giwa,’ which Mu-won had once managed, was currently operated by Chairman Hwang Mun-sang’s only son.
Having received help from a gangster he would have otherwise chewed up and spat out—and now even joining hands with him—President Choi tried quite skillfully to hide his true intentions. However, despite his polished appearance, Cha Mu-won was not exactly ‘nice.’
“Where do you find gangsters these days who take land by force?”
Extinguishing the cigarette in a stone ashtray, Mu-won smiled thinly.
“President Choi, just sit back and enjoy the show.”
Just then, a large sedan glided in front of them. Reacting faster than the owner, President Choi, Mu-won opened the rear door.
“Please, get in.”
Unable to hide his inner turmoil any longer, a trembling President Choi was practically pushed into the backseat. Holding the car door, Mu-won leaned over to look at President Choi.
“The neighborhood atmosphere is quite grim.”
Pulling the seatbelt and placing it in President Choi’s hand, he added one more thing.
“Take care of yourself while you’re out.”
At the subtle threat to behave himself in the future, President Choi’s face contorted. But a deeper fear had already covered his complexion. Without any particular criticism or provocation, Mu-won smiled handsomely, unlike a typical gangster, and closed the car door.
As the expensive sedan quietly glided away, a bulky pickup truck soon stopped in front of Mu-won. Before Jae-un, sitting in the driver’s seat, could jump out, Mu-won opened the passenger door, climbed in, and leaned his large frame against the seat.
“Where shall I take you, Hyung-nim?”
Ignoring Jae-un, who had been excessively walking on eggshells around him lately as if he were doing something he shouldn’t, Mu-won closed his eyes.
“The House.”
The illegal houses that had vanished due to the intrusion of Mu-won and Jae-un had begun to reappear one by one after the casino houses. Mu-won did not deny or avoid his past. Dogfighting, cockfighting, and pit fighting brought back old memories as much as gambling did, often leaving him in a foul mood.
‘Do you… like gambling?’
A white face that had guessed completely wrong came to mind. Sold for a pittance due to his parents’ gambling addiction, Mu-won had been raised like a beast.
There was no way he would like gambling.
The hesitating white face had soon turned into a drenched one. Namu, whom he had carried out of the raw fish restaurant, was much lighter than he remembered. It wasn’t an environment where a child could put on weight. He remembered the eyes that sparkled while looking at the samgyetang. It was obvious he loved eating, but he had a small appetite. Perhaps because he grew up malnourished, his small stomach couldn’t keep up with his greed for food.
The cast on the right hand was a two-week recovery. The wrist ligament was stretched. Other than that, there were no fractures or cracks. Most were lacerations and bruises. However, the anus, perineum, and testicles, which had been targeted intensively, were in bad condition.
Sitting on the hospital cabinet and listening to Seong-cheol’s medical opinion while stitching up the abdominal skin, Mu-won frowned. Namu, lying prone with a pillow for support, didn’t make a single sound. He only soaked the pillow, which was as large as his own body, with tears.
Tsk. Clicking his tongue, Mu-won moved reflexively.
“Hy-Hyung-nim! I haven’t even finished stitching…!”
Seong-cheol, who felt like he’d been hit by a bolt of lightning while concentrating, raised his voice as he followed Mu-won in a daze. Regardless, what shut Seong-cheol’s mouth, as if shooing away an annoying fly, was Mu-won’s indifferent voice.
“If he cries like this, won’t the kid get dehydrated?”
“Huh? What do you mean…. Ah, that kid is on an IV, so he’s fine… Good grief, when did it start raining only on the child?”
Startled, Seong-cheol checked the IV volume and moved his hands quickly.
“Fix the kid’s dehydration first.”
“But Hyung-nim, you’re also receiving a blood transfusion….”
Under a gaze that suggested he should have finished the treatment by now while he was complaining, a flinching Seong-cheol put down the suturing tools and checked Namu.
“Gasp, his body is like a fireball.”
The tears were one thing, but the cold sweat was immense. Seong-cheol inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that if it weren’t for Mu-won, the boy would have gone into shock at least once. He changed the IV fluid and adjusted the volume and speed. As soon as the antibiotics and antipyretics were injected, Seong-cheol returned and changed his gloves.
“As expected, Hyung-nim’s intuition is…!”
At a look that told him to stop the flattery and just finish what he was doing, Seong-cheol shut his mouth tight. The excuse that this was the limit of a one-person clinic reached his throat, but he swallowed that too.
When Seong-cheol discovered Mu-won bursting in at dawn carrying a small child, he couldn’t help but look back at Jae-un, who followed. Like a bear who only knew his Hyung-nim, Jae-un helped Mu-won lay the child on the hospital bed without a word of complaint.
“Isn’t it you who’s injured, Hyung-nim?”
“That’s right. Get the blood transfusion packs ready first.”
Jae-un, answering instead, tried to make Mu-won sit in a chair. Moving his hand away, Mu-won perched himself on a table that was at least the right height. When he took off his shirt, Seong-cheol’s eyes widened at the revealed wound, and only then did he make a fuss.
“No, Hyung-nim! You came here in this state when your body is like this! Just what did you get hit by?”
“A dog knife.”
“Those sons of bitches!”
Again, Jae-un answered instead. Seong-cheol was infuriated to hear that his abdominal skin had been slashed horizontally with a knife featuring dense serrations. Known as a dog-slaughtering knife, it was famous for tearing away muscle and flesh more during the pull than the entry. The intention behind using that knife was clear. They had treated Mu-won like a fighting dog. They had mocked his past.
Though he didn’t dare show it in front of his Hyung-nim, Seong-cheol had been screaming a variety of savage curses in silence throughout the treatment. It was just as he finally finished the emergency care.
“The kid first.”
For a moment, Seong-cheol almost committed insubordination, thinking that a man who had just come back from the brink of death shouldn’t be worrying about someone else right now, but he barely swallowed his words at Jae-un’s signal.
Anyone watching would think the kid was the one who almost died.
Eventually, while doing as he was told, Seong-cheol’s face became serious.
“Hyung-nim, I’ll go take an X-ray. I just pinched it together roughly, so it’ll burst if he moves.”
After urging caution, Seong-cheol prescribed IV fluids, antibiotics, and painkillers for Namu and quickly went to the X-ray room. Fortunately, other than the stretched ligament in the right wrist, there were no fractures. The severe parts were the visible wounds.
After various twists and turns, Seong-cheol finished treating the two severely injured patients and absentmindedly looked out the window. Although the blinds were drawn and the outside wasn’t visible, the sunlight that had risen since then was leaking in.
“Hyung-nim, you need to lie down and rest too.”
“Right, good work.”
Responding nonchalantly, Mu-won still hadn’t taken his eyes off Namu. Two questions arose in his mind.
How can he cry for hours without making a single sound?
Why is he crying?
If he were crying because of pain, he couldn’t cry so quietly.
Reaching out, Mu-won brushed away the hair covering the boy’s forehead. The pale face was a mess of cold sweat and tears.
“…….”
Just as he was about to withdraw his hand, a cheek pressed against him. Namu, who had been shedding nothing but tears, had clung to the warmth in his sleep. Looking down quietly at Namu, who continued to cry silently even then, Mu-won touched the tip of his round nose. He flinched and clung closer again.
“Hy-Hyung-nim?”
Jae-un, who dragged out the tactless Seong-cheol who reacted again, closed the hospital room door. It was a relief that, since it was for gangsters, they had only brought in large hospital beds.
Mu-won, who climbed into the same bed as Namu and volunteered to be the pillow, felt a feverish face rest on his chest. He had been hot earlier, but the fever had subsided to a warm temperature. Namu, half-climbed on top, squirmed around searching for warmth. Unable to fully climb up due to lack of strength, Mu-won scooped him up with one arm. Then, he placed the body, which didn’t even amount to a handful, on his chest.
Even after finding warmth, Namu could not stop his tears.
At this rate, I might have to change the IV again.
As he leaned his left cheek against Mu-won’s chest, the plump baby fat squished softly. Since the left cheek was the side that had been beaten until the blood burst, Mu-won thought about turning his head, but decided against it. He would probably return to the original position anyway. Staring blankly at the fluff-ball whose actions and thoughts were predictable, Mu-won’s gaze landed on the left arm.
The skin, which must have originally been white, was covered in bruises. More noticeable were the bite marks that would have required one or two stitches. It was because he had clenched his teeth until the flesh of his forearm was torn off to avoid making a sound. Counting one, two, three, four, five, six, Mu-won opened his lips, which had been silent all along.
“Namu-ssi.”
“…….”
“Namu.”
“…….”
“Namu.”
“…….”
“Mu.”
Only then did the eyelashes of the motionless fluff-ball flicker. Though he had been put to sleep with sedatives, the sense of pain would still be awake. Delirium often broke out in this state.
“Why are you crying?”
“…….”
“Mu.”
“…Euh-heung….”
The fluff-ball, who only whimpered without answering, rubbed his left cheek and then made a crying face from the pain. Thinking it wasn’t entirely without effect, Mu-won asked the question again, mimicking the tone the fluff-ball had responded to.
“Why are you crying, hm?”
“…Hic….”
“Mu?”
“It… hurts….”
Rather than the relief of solving the mystery, Mu-won became more curious as to why he cried without a sound.
“It hurts….”
“Then why do you cry without a sound?”
“…They… hate me….”
“Who?”
“Hic…… the people….”
Had he been beaten severely if he even let out a groan of pain?
Having resolved the mystery, Mu-won looked down at the fluff-ball who was clinging even more. A normal Mu-won would not have given him a second glance. He wouldn’t have used a knife to get a child out while he himself was stabbed. It was like using a cow-slaughtering knife to catch a flea.
Yes, if it had been the usual Mu-won, he would have moved according to the plan at the scheduled time, regardless of whether the fluff-ball’s lower half was torn apart in the illegal casino.
“…….”
The sunlight leaking through the blinds touched the fluff-ball’s cheek. This side was also swollen from being beaten.
Maybe I should have stripped them to the bone. Whether they’re fleas or vermin.
Mu-won, who was muttering, paused. The eyelashes of the fluff-ball, which had been closed the whole time, seemed to flicker and then very slowly pushed upward.
“…….”
He wasn’t in his right mind. The fluff-ball, heavily intoxicated by the medicine, was showing symptoms of delirium. Finally pushing up his heavy eyelids, the fluff-ball looked at Mu-won. Mu-won thought they would close again immediately, but the torn lips parted.
“Are… you… hurt…?”
That was what weighed most on his mind.
Something that wasn’t even worth a single punch, who knows how much he remembers, was worrying about a hopeless gangster. Just as Mu-won was about to let out a hollow laugh, wondering if he was really worrying about him—
“Son… niim….”
“…….”
“Are you… hurt…?”
Looking silently into the eyes that were a mess of burst capillaries and full of moisture, lacking focus, Mu-won answered.
“No.”
“…….”
“…….”
“That’s… a relief…. It’s a relief….”
The fluff-ball, who answered after a long time, seemed to smile faintly before his head dropped. Reflexively checking the pulse, Mu-won focused all his attention on the fluff-ball’s heart beating slowly on his chest.
The delirium was as trivial as he was.
So trivial that it barely registered.
“…….”
Recalling the confession that had once brushed past his lips like a gust of wind, Mu-won’s pupils turned pitch black.
Mine.
Mine, huh.
Mu-won had never created something of ‘his own’ in his life.
‘Mine’ sometimes became a weakness, and sometimes became a justification. A justification to have one’s life rightfully disposed of.
“Hyung-nim, we’ve arrived.”
Mu-won, who had fallen into a shallow sleep, opened his eyes at Jae-un’s voice. For some reason, the injured area was throbbing, and as he fiddled with it, Jae-un quickly spoke.
“Is the injured area uncomfortable? Shall I take you to the hospital immediately?”
“Forget it.”
It had been two weeks since the stitching. Mu-won’s muscles and flesh, which had strong recovery power, had more than healed, but because it was a saw-knife, the scar remained messy.
“If you want to treat me like some old man in the back room, tell me right now.”
“Hyung-nim! What on earth are you talking about!”
Mu-won let out a short laugh at Jae-un’s reaction, which looked as if he had just heard a bolt from the blue, and stepped out of the pickup truck first. The wind blowing from the forest after a bout of rain carried the scent of earth. Along with a stench that even that natural smell couldn’t mask.
* * *
The sauna room was located inside ‘Tangerine Massage.’ There was more space further inside the warehouse. When a door that looked like a wall opened, a space about ten square meters appeared.
It was a structure like a public bathhouse shrunk down to ten square meters. A cypress sauna, large enough for one adult to sit comfortably, was attached to the wall opposite the entrance. On the left wall was a bath wide enough for two adults, and next to it were a standing shower and a seated shower side by side. On the built-in shelf to the right, shower supplies and massage supplies were neatly arranged.
Occupying the center of the sauna room was a standing treatment table. Unlike a regular treatment table, it was about 1.5 times larger, and a transparent waterproof vinyl sheet wrapped around the mattress.
‘Take your clothes off.’
The sauna reservation was made immediately the day after Namu returned. Thanks to a reservation scheduled for the early morning, it was the Manager who pushed Namu—who had woken up after barely any sleep—into the sauna room.
Knowing what kind of place the sauna room was, Namu stripped without a word. After making him take off everything, including his underwear, the Manager gave him a few rules.
‘Today’s guest is allowed to touch, so stay still no matter where he touches you. Don’t go jumping around just to show you’re a rookie. If he says he’ll only use his hands, you get an extra 50,000 won; the mouth is 100,000; and if it’s the back hole, call me. The pager is here.’
The pager the Manager pointed to was attached next to the built-in shelf.
‘Give him whatever he wants, as long as he doesn’t lunge at you to fuck your back hole. Don’t get beaten up again because you resisted. The bastards who come here are at the end of their ropes, so they won’t show any mercy.’
The Manager spoke carelessly about a few other precautions, as if they weren’t very important. Adding that there were five reservations today, the Manager looked back at Namu.
‘If you do well, you can take more than ten people a day. Think about how much that is for ten people—at least 2 million, and if you factor in tips, you’re making over 1.5 million even after the commission. You need to pay off your debt quickly. Honestly, I thought you’d kick the bucket before paying it off because the cost of your medical bills for those beatings was so inefficient. I’m glad you’ve changed your mind. Right?’
‘…Yes.’
Namu, who had become so jumpy that he flinched whenever someone even raised a hand in front of him, couldn’t find the courage to go to the House. He seemed to have had a seizure while suffering in his sleep at night, but he couldn’t remember exactly.
‘The guest will be here soon, so serve him well. Got it?’
‘Yes.’
Namu nodded with an awkward smile.
Namu’s first guest used a different entrance. The moment the cypress door, which Namu truly believed was just a sauna, opened, he almost screamed. Fortunately, he swallowed the cry that had risen to the top of his throat, but his startled heart hammered in his chest.
There wasn’t just one entrance.
A man who looked to be in his mid-forties was wearing a wide-collared shirt, slacks, and polished shoes. A gold necklace hung around his thick, fleshy neck, a gold watch was on his wrist, and he carried a loan collection bag by his side.
Namu struggled to move his facial muscles, frozen with fear, to create something resembling a smile.
‘W-welcome, sir.’
‘A pretty face like that is worth the money.’
The man, who scanned Namu in a single glance with a look that said he had already appraised him, began to strip off his clothes. He tossed his clothes, the loan bag, and the various accessories he had brought into the cypress sauna and strode over.
The man, who seemed to have more fat than muscle, was like a canvas. Covered in tattoos everywhere except his face, the man stood in front of the standing shower and called Namu.
‘Hey, come over here and wet my body first.’
‘Pardon? Ah… yes…!’
Namu practically ran to stand beside the man. As he held the shower nozzle and adjusted the water temperature, he heard a snicker from above.
‘Fuck, I’ve been waiting months to fuck you.’
It was the first time he had heard such words. However, Namu ignored the man’s monologue. He carefully wetted the man’s body with the adjusted shower, glancing up cautiously.
‘So fucking teasing, damn it.’
While scanning Namu thoroughly with bloodshot eyes, the man savored the touch on his body. His hands felt incredibly soft, as if they were made for this. Unaware of the man’s inner thoughts, Namu focused solely on washing the man’s body. Thinking of it as work, his trembling hands calmed down.
‘Scrub me clean, got it?’
At the man’s warning, Namu replied diligently, “Yes,” and slid his hand into the man’s wide-spread crotch. The man, who was hairy overall, had thick hair on his genitals as well. Namu cleaned the soft testicles and the pre-erect shaft with soapy water. After meticulously scrubbing the man’s anus and perineum with the back of his arm and rinsing him with water, Namu asked hesitantly.
‘W-would you like me to wash your hair too?’
The man, whose cock had since stood erect, told him to go ahead and grabbed Namu’s forearm, leading him toward the treatment table. Namu washed the man’s hair. He was extremely careful not to get shampoo in the man’s eyes and even gave him a scalp massage.
Meanwhile, the man kneaded Namu’s body like dough. He slapped Namu’s buttocks and gripped his genitals and balls tightly before letting go and snickering. When Namu rested his buttocks on the man’s stomach to massage his thighs, the man would flick his anus with his finger.
‘For a hole that’s been gang-banged, it’s surprisingly intact. You’re naturally gifted.’
The anus was still slightly swollen. Namu realized that there were various types of shame and focused on the massage. He didn’t even think to correct the man’s misunderstanding. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
On his first day taking five guests, Namu barely managed to lie down in his tiny room, his body exhausted. Having spent over twelve hours in a narrow, humid space, he was naturally drained.
Separate from that, Namu’s impression was that it wasn’t as bad as he thought. Either way, it was the same as selling his body, so he thought this was better than being beaten until his skin burst. In the midst of these thoughts, he fell asleep as if fainting.
And for the past two weeks, Namu was worked to the bone without any leisure for such trivial thoughts. From the second day, the number of guests increased from five to ten. With a basic two-hour session, ten guests meant twenty hours. He often spent the remaining four hours catching fragmented naps. For a day or two, he would lose half a day or a full day to seizures.
The Manager didn’t get angry. He simply added the lost revenue for that day to Namu’s debt list as a ‘responsibility fee.’ Strangely, it felt like the more he worked, the more debt accumulated. No, it wasn’t a feeling; it was actually happening. Even so, Namu had less time to think, moving like a machine between the sauna room and his tiny room, or occasionally having seizures.
Today, too, Namu was only able to leave the sauna room after 3 AM. Even though he had washed up, he didn’t feel refreshed. He was likely lacking sleep. It had been a long time since he had made do with bread, milk, or kimbap for meals. Because of the influx of guests, Namu had no time to catch his breath.
His cheeks, which had been flushed from just washing, turned pale and cold in less than a minute. Just as Namu, who wanted nothing more than to lie down and rest, was opening the warehouse door to leave—
“You little shit.”
Along with a curse, Namu was grabbed by the hair and dragged away. He resisted reflexively, but upon recognizing President Im’s voice, he let himself be dragged quietly. In the early morning, faces looking out through the bamboo blinds at the sudden commotion were familiar. It was Teacher Choi and Teacher Kim.
Thinking that there must have been a reservation even for the night shift, Namu was thrown into Room 7. Thump—Namu’s eyes shook as his back hit the treatment table and he tumbled to the floor.
The opposite wall was pierced. More accurately, it was open. The space where Mu-won had told him to hide and where he had hidden Oh Mun-ju. That space was clearly exposed.
‘I used Namu-ssi.’
As Namu stared at the closet, which looked narrower and darker than usual today, his hair was grabbed again.
‘I said I already used him because I had a use for him.’
Was this what he had been talking about?
As he was dragged toward the closet, Namu didn’t struggle, nor did he let out a moan. Only a belated realization filled his mind like acrid smoke.
He thought he had been told to hide there when it was dangerous.
It seemed that wasn’t the case.
“You little shit, how did you find out about this place!”
Namu’s neck grew hot as he realized that while he had hidden Oh Mun-ju, feeling fluttered because he thought he was told to hide there when it was dangerous, it had all been his own delusion.
The guest had expected him to hide Mrs. Oh, who was in danger, in that spot. Did he know about Mrs. Oh’s situation then? Was that why he used him? Did he act so kindly to him just to use him for that much? Because he… was an easy target.
“I asked how you found out about this place!”
President Im, his face distorted like a demon, screamed while shaking Namu’s head violently. However, there was no answer from Namu. Further provoked, President Im jerked Namu’s head back. Whether it was narcolepsy or something else, the madman was starting his madness. President Im, who roughly slapped the cheek of Namu as he was falling backward, bellowed.
“Wake up! You little slut!”
His hazy eyes struggled to find President Im. For a moment, seeing Namu’s eyelids sinking heavily again, President Im slapped his cheeks repeatedly. His cheeks, already lightly bruised by guests, were stained blood-red.
“Fuck, throw this shit in the solitary cell.”
It was the Manager who barely caught Namu as he was tossed aside. Frowning at the troublesome situation, the Manager looked at Namu, who caused such a variety of accidents, with pathetic eyes and dragged him away. Namu, fallen into a deep sleep due to a narcoleptic seizure, was quietly pulled along, whether his body was dragged across a cheap carpet or bumped into things.
The solitary cell President Im mentioned was in Room 9, which was rarely used. Like the closet in Room 7, it was a hidden space, but it was called a solitary cell because it was about five square meters—large enough for the small-framed Namu to curl up and lie down. The solitary cell was usually used as a place to lock up kids who were caught while trying to escape.
After closing the heavy 20cm thick wooden door, the Manager drew the decorative curtains that covered the wall. Great care had been taken with soundproofing, so no matter how much one screamed inside, not a single sound leaked out.
“Fuck.”
President Im was still standing in Room 7, fuming. There was no way to know how Namu had found out about that secret space. Because Detective Woo had scraped all the memory on the day Prosecutor Heo Dong-hyeon raided the place, there was nothing to be salvaged from the secretly installed CCTV.
Was that where he hid Oh Mun-ju that day too? He thought he had been beaten unfairly, but Heo Dong-hyeon had hit the mark. Though it was a case of a blind squirrel finding a nut.
“Call me when Namu wakes up.”
How much more was he going to torment the boy?
The Manager, already annoyed, nodded and saw President Im out. As he turned around, he locked eyes with Teacher Kim. Teacher Choi, perhaps not wanting to see the kid getting beaten, had already hidden his face in the treatment room. Unlike Teacher Choi, Teacher Kim, who had remained until this hour despite having no reserved guests, wanted only one thing.
“Well, Teacher Kim can use the tiny room from now on.”
“Ah… thank you.”
Look at him acting bewildered.
It was Teacher Kim who had snitched on Namu to President Im just to take over one tiny room.
While waiting for a guest, he had dozed off in the tiny room, but Namu’s movements next to him were suspicious, so he had followed him stealthily. He had clearly seen him taking Mrs. Oh out of the closet in Room 7.
It was unexpected that Teacher Kim, who was more easygoing and quiet than the usually blunt and irritable Teacher Choi, had done such a thing. But the Manager didn’t place much meaning on that unexpectedness.
The place was crawling with people who would start a war just to avoid losing a single 100-won coin. Since they had also rolled around in Gamgyul City for 20 or 30 years, they had long since noticed that ‘Tangerine Massage’ was not a wholesome establishment.
Even so, the reason they didn’t give warnings to the new recruits, even through hints, was that it wasn’t worth sacrificing their own convenience. Like a tiny room, or regular customers. Small profits.
Turning away with a face that looked troubled, Teacher Kim crawled into the tiny room. As he began to unpack the luggage he had already moved, Teacher Kim barely swallowed a hum that was about to escape and looked around. Fortunately, there were no watching eyes.
He hadn’t liked Namu from the moment the young brat, claiming to have no home or temple, pushed him out of the tiny room. Every time the boy, who could earn several times more than him no matter what he did and who would end up selling his body anyway, smiled brightly while pretending to be innocent, his stomach twisted with jealousy.
Those locked in the solitary cell were moved elsewhere after a month or two. It meant they were being put into full-scale operation, but that had nothing to do with Teacher Kim himself. He was simply satisfied to have regained a cozy space where he could stretch his arms and legs and rest.
“Darling, are you sure you’ve never been to Southeast Asia?”
Superintendent Seo, sitting opposite him, tilted her glass. Mu-won, who was about to stand up, gave her his attention. Meeting eyes that were purely black like darkness, Superintendent Seo curled the corners of her mouth and drank the liquor in her glass.
“There’s one name I heard until I was sick of it while I was in the Philippines for six months. Multo. It means ghost in Tagalog.”
Sensing the story would be long, Mu-won sat back down.
“Before the Korean Desk was established, a gangster from Korea reportedly tore through the Philippine Syndicato. Do you know what that Multo did?”
Superintendent Seo poured liquor into Mu-won’s empty glass.
“They say he disappeared like a ghost as soon as he destroyed two organizations using a strategy of sowing discord. No one knows his real name or face, but one photo suspected to be him is shoved in a cabinet as evidence.”
Superintendent Seo placed a photo on the table and pushed it toward Mu-won. At the very edge of the photo, taken from a diagonal top view, stood a tall figure with black hair. Wearing suit pants and golf wear, he looked like a tourist at a glance. Unfortunately, it was a back view, and the resolution was less than 1 million pixels.
“If only the face had been captured, I could have roughly outlined him.”
Superintendent Seo, sounding very disappointed, added more drinks.
“But doesn’t it look familiar?”
Looking at Superintendent Seo, who was testing him, nothing could be discerned from Mu-won’s face. Even Superintendent Seo, with 25 years of experience, found it difficult to read Mu-won’s inner thoughts.
“It’s you, right?”
Even at the piercing question, she scrutinized Mu-won’s calm expression. It was the textbook definition of a standard expression, nothing more and nothing less than how one treats a business partner. Superintendent Seo played another card.
“The guy Chairman Hwang sent from The Center.”
Though her ‘cards’ were all baseless bluffs.
“No matter how I look at it, this operation seems like a Philippine variation.”
“Sowing discord is a strategy that always works well.”
Answering readily with a smile, Mu-won raised his glass.
“So, don’t stick your nose in other people’s parties and just make sure to catch the pumpkin that rolls your way?”
He poured the liquor into a soup bowl and overturned the empty glass. His face toward the sarcastic Superintendent Seo was simply handsome, with no trace of sinister intent.
“Superintendent Seo, you should wear one more rose.”
One more.
Superintendent Seo, who glared sharply at Mu-won as if he were speaking as if he had a history of giving her one, laughed.
“Wolseong-gwan. Because of that case, I did go from two roses to three. Did President Cha go back to school because of that case two years ago?”
The Wolseong-gwan incident. It was a legendary case that had the whole country in an uproar for a while, with 50 casualties resulting from a fight between gangsters. Superintendent Seo, who was the violent crimes team leader of the precinct in charge of Wolseong-gwan at the time, became a Senior Superintendent by adding one more rose to her two in exchange for covering up the incident.
Six months later, she was appointed to the Philippine Korean Desk as part of the promotion personnel changes. Thanks to the crackdown on drug addicts, she added one more rose to make four. She became a Superintendent. Calling it a crackdown on drug addicts was just a way of saying that Superintendent Seo’s achievement was simply arresting the people someone had neatly packaged and thrown her way.
After returning to Korea, Superintendent Seo became the branch chief of Gamgyul City, a position she had long desired. A place perfect for increasing one’s assets by appropriately crushing things, as everyone there was stained with filth.
“Don’t tell me President Cha raised me?”
“Whether it’s humans or beasts, raising things doesn’t suit my aptitude.”
“Then it’s Chairman Hwang?”
He must have kept an eye on Superintendent Seo during the process of covering up the Wolseong-gwan incident.
“Wolseong-gwan really did a great job.”
Superintendent Seo, who encountered the limbs of the person who had manipulated her like a puppet because she was obsessed with promotion by any means necessary, was not indignant. Instead, she felt intrigued.
“You linked President Choi to Wolseong-gwan too, didn’t you?”
“Superintendent Seo, you’ll live a long life because you’re so curious.”
Smiling crookedly, Mu-won stood up without a sound. Superintendent Seo, who had been watching him, realized a beat late that he had stood up and soon frowned. That meant he could have slit her throat before she even noticed.
They said Chairman Hwang’s underwater limb wasn’t just a dog, but something like a tiger.
Suddenly feeling a chill down her spine, Superintendent Seo followed the back of Mu-won, who left the room without a greeting, and poured liquor into her own glass.
“Uneducated brat.”
A brat much younger than her, speaking informally.
He shook off the chills with a string of curses and washed away the cold feeling with expensive liquor.
“Hyung-nim.”
Jae-un, who had been waiting, quickly opened the passenger door. This, too, was one of the many ways he walked on eggshells around Mu-won. He had surrounded himself with men who were consistent in their behavior.
“Would you like a cigarette?”
As Jae-un asked about Mu-won’s intentions since he wasn’t getting in immediately, a large hand lightly slapped his back.
“You trying to turn me back into a chain smoker?”
“True. I was sincerely impressed when I saw you cut down the cigarettes you used to smoke by the pack a day. They say controlling it is harder than quitting cold turkey.”
“Do you drive with your mouth?”
“Of course not. My driving skills remain excellent.”
Jittering with playfulness, Jae-un shifted gears and stepped on the accelerator. As the pickup truck left the restaurant and drove through the quiet city of Byeolwon, the radio played whatever Jae-un had tuned into. Knowing that Mu-won didn’t care whether the radio was on or what genre was playing, Jae-un usually set the channel and volume to his own taste. Of course, such a habit was flexibly adjusted depending on Mu-won’s mood.
Contrary to Jae-un’s thought that he must be in a good mood today, Mu-won was not feeling particularly great.
Wolseong-gwan. The incident that had landed Mu-won in prison two years ago. While running errands for the Chairman as usual, Mu-won had headed to Wolseong-gwan after an urgent contact. VIPs from the Philippines had clashed with members of the organization. It was a simple report, but the aftermath of the incident was not simple.
At the time, the management of Wolseong-gwan, where cash flowed like a gold vein, was handled by Hwang Jeong-sang. Having taken over Wolseong-gwan, which Mu-won had originally managed, Hwang Jeong-sang boasted immense power as if he had inherited a throne.
He was the late-born only son of Chairman Hwang Mun-sang. While there are exceptions, it is human instinct to obsess over blood relatives the more one possesses. Hwang Mun-sang was by no means a tender father, but he did not spare any support. That didn’t mean Hwang Jeong-sang had absorbed all that support effectively.
Mu-won, who often handled dirty work under Chairman Hwang, was merely a pawn moving beneath the surface. No, he was treated more like a dog than a pawn.
When Mu-won, at eighteen, defeated an opponent twice his size and survived another day in the cage, Hwang Mun-sang took him in immediately. Chairman Hwang, who had been satisfied with him as a swordsman, took a closer interest in Mu-won, who possessed a decent brain.
After cleaning up after gangsters, Mu-won escaped the bottom ranks, took the GED, and graduated from college while managing a loan shark office. While engaging in gangster activities almost daily, he operated construction companies and capital firms.
It was Chairman Hwang’s right to decide the use of Mu-won, who had risen to become Hwang Mun-sang’s confidant after biting and tearing like a fighting dog at the bottom. Thus, it was only natural that Hwang Jeong-sang, the biological son, took the credit for Mu-won’s achievements. Cha Mu-won always lived like Hwang Jeong-sang’s shadow, like Chairman Hwang’s dog. Truly, like a ghost.
Even so, Mu-won’s existence was not easily erased. Chairman Hwang’s closest aide, an unidentified swordsman. Perhaps a successor who might follow in Chairman Hwang’s footsteps. Such rumors poked at Hwang Jeong-sang’s inferiority complex.
Whenever Hwang Jeong-sang caused trouble or botched a job, Chairman Hwang sent Mu-won here and there as if to soothe his son. First, it was the military. After that, he was tucked away for anywhere from one to three years, rotating through Hong Kong, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Russia. This overlapped exactly with the period when Hwang Jeong-sang was acting out, claiming to undergo successor training.
The Wolseong-gwan incident was the same. The Philippine guests were VIPs the organization had hosted for business purposes. Hwang Jeong-sang, drunk and hitting on anyone, happened to touch a woman who was entertaining a group from the Syndicato. What could have ended as a simple clash escalated into a fight between the organization and the Syndicato due to Hwang Jeong-sang’s unnecessary pride.
Feeling deceived, the Syndicato ran wild, wielding guns and knives. The organization, which had intended to settle things quietly with words, also began to run wild after one of its members was seriously injured.
What Mu-won had handed over to Hwang Jeong-sang included the organization members remaining at Wolseong-gwan. They were under Mu-won, but they were Chairman Hwang’s people who owed loyalty to the Chairman. It was inefficient to drive organization members, whom Chairman Hwang had made useful, to a dog’s death just for the sake of Hwang Jeong-sang’s pride.
Around the time Mu-won arrived at Wolseong-gwan, he received a call from Chairman Hwang. The talk was long, but the conclusion was an order to protect his son. It was a useless worry. The well-trained organization members would have hidden Hwang Jeong-sang in the innermost room and taken the knife wounds or gunshot wounds—the first of their lives—themselves.
Wolseong-gwan, which he dove into as if flying, was a living hell. Ordinary guests screamed and rushed out, and the VIP room hallway was drenched in blood. It was just as Mu-won expected. The most useful guys had volunteered to be human shields.
Mu-won dealt with the Philippine gangsters while throwing the survivors into rooms. Dogfights were Mu-won’s specialty, and having lost the capacity for fear was his forte. A fighting dog, skilled in combat and devoid of fear, instilled overwhelming terror in his opponents.
However, Mu-won could not avoid the muzzle of a gun. When one sees blood, even the coldest reason boils over. Consumed by adrenaline, Mu-won finished all his judgments in a short moment.
Kill them. Today, all the Philippine gangsters would die here. The nature of the Syndicato was like cockroaches; if you kill one, ten more rush in. Only by cutting the root and erasing all traces would the Philippine business remain unaffected. Mu-won moved as planned.
Exactly 52 casualties occurred. That was the number excluding the Syndicato. The Philippine gangsters were not included in the casualties because they were not supposed to have existed there in the first place. However, the vans carrying their corpses would be thrown as fuel into an old crematorium.
The organization’s losses were four dead, thirty-nine seriously injured, and nine lightly injured. The damage was relatively low because there was only one gun. They probably hadn’t expected the other side to use firearms smuggled in as a precaution.
The cleanup began immediately. It wasn’t easy. In the rooms where the Syndicato had been hosted, there were also civilians cast from the hall. Many civilians were terrified by the gunshots and the brawl. Above all, it was a gangster fight with 52 casualties. It was difficult to bury it quietly. The police and prosecution intervened, and it was reported in the news as a clash between organization members.
‘I might just change “Jeong-sang” (Peak) to “Jeong-sang” (Normal). No, maybe I’ll just strike him from the family register entirely.’
Mu-won, suffering from gunshot wounds, underwent police investigation in his hospital room. Two grazes on his arm and leg, and one lodged near his ribs. While there were numerous other minor bruises and lacerations, the bullet lodged in his ribs was quite serious, placing Mu-won on the list of seriously injured.
After the police left, Chairman Hwang entered the VIP room with a devastated face. While cursing his idiot son, he obsessively observed Mu-won’s reaction.
Mu-won was thirty-six. Having lived like a dog for the past 18 years, he had more than paid his debt of gratitude. Mu-won’s share in elevating the Munhak Clan from a third-rate thug group to a proper enterprise in The Center was nearly 80 percent.
Reading something in Mu-won’s expression, Chairman Hwang squared his shoulders and asked bluntly.
‘Do you want to go in?’
Mu-won also made a blunt request.
‘Just give me a generous retirement fund.’
‘You think I can’t even grant that!’
Chairman Hwang, raising his voice, did not seem pleased. It wasn’t because of the inconvenience that would arise from the disappearance of a man he used as his hands and feet, nor was it because he disliked having to concede a point to the police and prosecution.
Chairman Hwang had his own kind of affection for Mu-won. It just didn’t reach the level of his biological son. Surprisingly, Chairman Hwang was weighing the utility of Cha Mu-won and Hwang Jeong-sang on the same level. Of course, this wasn’t surprising to Mu-won. It was simply something that would make the people who had aligned themselves with Hwang Jeong-sang faint if they knew.
Mu-won couldn’t understand Chairman Hwang, who agonized over useless things. It was human instinct to be drawn to blood relatives.
‘Let’s set the severance pay at 100 billion.’
‘You thieving bastard!’
‘I know you’re rich, old man.’
‘I shouldn’t have entrusted all the ledgers to you.’
Chairman Hwang, slapping the ground with a face that showed no regret, asked tentatively.
‘Anything else?’
‘If the kids who were hurt this time want to wash their hands of this life, send them off with generous severance pay. As for those who want to stay, move them to inactive posts for a while.’
‘Ah, that’s for me, the leader of the Munhak Clan, to handle!’
‘They’re the kids who got hit by a bolt from the blue because of your son. They’re also the ones who acted as shields to protect your bloodline until the end.’
‘I know, I know. I said I’ll do it!’
Having nothing more to say, Mu-won tried to drive Chairman Hwang out with silence. Chairman Hwang persisted. It meant he had something left to say.
‘Stay for two years. Even after you get out of the joint, I can’t let you go immediately. I need a justification to let you out.’
‘…….’
‘If you don’t like it, take back your retirement!’
‘100 billion.’
‘You thieving bastard!’
Chairman Hwang, exploding in anger once more, waved his hand and left the hospital room.
It wasn’t that he hated being a gangster. Rather, it suited his aptitude. You can’t hide your birth; he was truly the son of a gangster. A thug who couldn’t even become a third-rate gangster, a madman obsessed with gambling. That was Cha Mu-won’s father.
Perhaps because he inherited that blood, or because he survived like a fighting dog, Mu-won felt euphoria while fighting and confirmed his boiling blood while crushing his opponents. What he found tedious was the political maneuvering of the hungry ghosts who rushed in to tear away even one more piece. It wasn’t that he lacked talent, just that it didn’t suit his aptitude. That was why Chairman Hwang regretted it even more.
Chairman Hwang extracted that regret through Mu-won’s labor. Even while he was hospitalized, during the short trial, and even right before his detention, he worked Mu-won to the bone. It was during this time that he discovered President Choi’s daughter.
A civilian who had been cast and pushed into a Syndicato room. Among them was President Choi’s daughter. Gangsters were those optimized for gangster work. The civilians in the room were no longer civilians. Tamed through violence or drugs, they were used as hostesses.
Mu-won took her out by abusing his authority, as she wailed that she was the only daughter of President Choi in Gamgyul City. He thought she might be useful. None of the organization members, who had come to look up to Mu-won more than anyone immediately after the incident, would have considered it an abuse of authority, and even if they had, they wouldn’t have dared to speak up. Not even Hwang Jeong-sang, who was holed up in his house, terrified.
“Hyung-nim, I’ve handled Director Myeong as you instructed.”
“Good job.”
Mu-won, who had stepped out of the pickup truck parked in front of the inn, took out a cigarette and lit it. Sensing his presence, the Red Dog walked forward a few steps, its collar jingling. Once again, it looked clearly disappointed. Jae-un, who followed him in late, glanced around awkwardly and pushed the Red Dog back into the house. Unlike a fighting dog, the creature didn’t bite and wasn’t fierce. Maybe it’s because it was rescued by someone like that, so it’s just mimicking it.
Sitting on the wooden platform, Mu-won sat facing the doghouse instead of lighting his cigarette. He felt the glistening eyes staring at him even in the darkness, but then the dog abruptly turned its head away.
“Little brat, look at that temper.”
Mu-won vaguely waved Jae-un inside, who had added a comment for no reason.
“Yes, sir.”
Jae-un entered the inn building without a word. He wouldn’t go to the inn room but would dive straight into the public bathhouse. Despite appearances, he was a clean fellow.
Chairman Hwang kept his promise. To an outsider, it might look like he’d been stabbed in the back, but the 100 billion was immediately deposited into a slush fund account, and sending him to Gamgyul City was the justification the Chairman had mentioned.
‘I spent half a year in the Philippines before I became a Superintendent, you know? To wipe out drug dealers. That’s when I added one more hibiscus.’
It was a butterfly effect. As it happened, the Philippine sector handled by Superintendent Seo was the stronghold of the Syndicato bastards who had vanished without a scream from Wolseong-gwan. The organization, which had fallen into internal strife due to the disappearance of key executives, had weakened, and a rival organization must have neatly packaged them and presented them to Superintendent Seo.
‘What is your goal?’
‘What is President Cha’s purpose in doing this?’
‘What on earth do you want!’
Different voices asked the same question.
The goal was retirement. He was confident that if he just cleared away the annoying things and lived, he would naturally blend in. Gamgyul City matched Cha Mu-won’s vibe.
Just because filthy humans sat at the top and ran a city with a single finger didn’t mean that conversation only worked if you trampled them. If you found their weaknesses and aligned your interests, you could live together roughly without having to fight in a tacky way.
That was the case until the illegal Houses, which boasted their strongholds while roaming all over Gamgyul City like a plague, began to annoy him.
The reason they started to annoy him.
Mu-won knew that reason exactly.
It was after he discovered a fluff-ball crawling into a dog grave piled up like a low ridge.