By Zephyria 
Tae-hwon was more concerned about the missing Kwon Rae-i than his own situation, where he was left alone in the middle of enemy territory. He had a feeling that he might do something rash again this time.
‘Like when he killed Kwon Sang-oh.’
What should Tae-hwon do if something happened? When he thought about that, he woke up as if he had been splashed with cold water. He had a bad feeling that something might go wrong.
And just then.
Thump, thump!
A violent sound came from the basement door. Tae-hwon quickly threw off the blanket and stood up.
‘Is it the young master?’
Did he come back? But why is the door locked?
It seemed like Kwon Rae-i had locked the door when he left, and the person outside couldn’t open the locked door. It’s not Kwon Rae-i.
“Who is it?”
Tae-hwon asked the person outside. But there was no answer from outside. The movement to force the door open only intensified.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, bang, bang, bang!
“I’m asking who it is.”
Tae-hwon slowly backed away against the wall and became wary. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and looked for something he could use as a weapon in case of an emergency.
‘Jeun might be playing some trick.’
Kwon Rae-i disappeared, Tae-hwon was left alone, and then an obvious uninvited guest came in the middle of the night.
Are they planning to overturn the agreed-upon terms? Or was it all a trap from the beginning?
Will this place be Woo Tae-hwon’s grave?
Tae-hwon grabbed a baseball bat from among the tools scattered in the cabinet. He was going to blow the head off anyone who came in. He held his breath and waited. Then, the shaking door stopped, and he heard a familiar voice.
“Move. Don’t waste your energy.”
“Yes, President.”
The conversation outside the door was clearly audible, and the words addressed to Tae-hwon were also clearly heard.
“Woo Tae-hwon.”
“…President Hwang, what brings you here in the middle of the night?”
“Let’s have a little chat. Open the door.”
Tae-hwon gripped the baseball bat tightly with both hands and lowered his stance. He couldn’t trust his words at all.
“There’s no need to come out to greet you in such a disheveled state after waking up from sleep. I can hear President Hwang’s voice well enough as it is.”
“Ha! I heard you lost your memory, but you’re talking like a child. Woo Tae-hwon. Is it hard to grasp the situation?”
He could hear President Hwang approaching. The sound of his footsteps gradually grew closer. He stopped his subordinates and stood close to the door, scolding Tae-hwon in a deep voice.
“Jeun accepted that detestable Kwon Rae-i. We have no intention of extending our generosity to you. It’s absurd to take a snake-like traitor into the organization.”
“So you’re going to dispose of me?”
“No. If we abandon you, Rae-i will leave too, and we’ll get unnecessary resentment. Why would we do such a wasteful thing?”
President Hwang knocked on the door.
Even though he just tapped it lightly, the metallic sound of the iron door echoed loudly.
“We’ll take you in. But you’ll have to pay the price.”
“…Yes. That’s what you meant. I understand.”
Tae-hwon slowly lowered the baseball bat he had raised. Then he completely disarmed himself and threw it on the floor. The bat rolled away and got stuck in the corner, and Tae-hwon put on his shoes barefoot and approached the door.
“As you can see, I’m clumsy because I’ve lost my memory. I ask for your understanding.”
The price.
I guess so.
Of course, it can’t be helped.
Tae-hwon grabbed the closed basement door and opened it. The lock was on, but it was easy to open from the inside.
When he opened the door and looked ahead, his eyes, which had adjusted to the darkness, clearly read the other person’s face. President Hwang was standing there, with about four burly men behind him.
“You understand well. Then let’s move to another place.”
“Yes.”
Tae-hwon nodded silently.
When you think about it, it was a very natural thing. In an organization, if you cause trouble or commit a crime, you have to take responsibility for it. And the most common punishment is to cut off a finger.
The little finger is also called the pinky finger, and it is the smallest and weakest finger of the five fingers. It is also used to make a promise by hooking it together.
‘Losing a finger would be a cheap price to pay.’
Rather, President Hwang was showing Tae-hwon great leniency. He let Woo Tae-hwon into Jeun for Kwon Rae-i’s sake and even gave him a welcome with drinks. Even if he had to cut off a finger in exchange for gaining Jeun as an ally, how could he complain?
They passed through a dark and bleak hallway, took the elevator, and moved to another place. When they got off on the third floor, they saw a room with the lights on at the end of the hallway. All the offices were dark, but only that place had the lights on. Tae-hwon followed President Hwang into the room, and he saw that the floor was covered with transparent plastic sheets. And next to it was a small guillotine-like device.
It had a wooden cutting board-like panel with leather straps to secure a person, and he could intuitively understand that it was used to cut off body parts by dropping a blade from above.
‘They usually use a Guillotine. Something like that?’
Tae-hwon stared at the blade above with cold eyes. It was currently fixed in place, but if he released the string, it would fall right down. Moreover, the blade was even larger than a Chinese chef’s knife.
‘Right. It’s not something to cut off a pinky finger.’
You don’t use a cow-slaughtering knife to kill a chicken.
Tae-hwon’s eyes gradually sharpened.
Only then did he realize what price President Hwang was demanding from him.
“Du-sik.”
“Yes, President.”
President Hwang called his henchmen, and the four burly men who had been following rushed at Tae-hwon as if they had rehearsed it. They grabbed one arm and one leg each and forcibly sat him in front of the device. Then, they fastened leather straps around his waist, forearms, and thighs to immobilize him. Tae-hwon did not resist meaninglessly or struggle; he simply stared intently at President Hwang.
“Is this the price you want from me?”
A hot, boiling sound erupted from Tae-hwon’s throat.
Clearly, a mere finger was not enough to satisfy President Hwang.
President Hwang took out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth, and an underling called Du-sik quickly lit it for him.
“Woo Tae-hwon. You need to understand your place.”
President Hwang smoked with a stern face, clicking his tongue. His imposing and powerful presence, like a mountain or a general, was immediately apparent. It seemed he was finally revealing the true colors he had been hiding for a day.
“If a knife-wielding bastard kills the master who took him in and seeks a new nest, how can one hand him a knife again? You can’t just swagger into Jeun’s den.”
“I see. So, you want one of my knife-wielding arms.”
“Of course! I’m not deaf just because I’m old. I heard that right arm of yours is badly injured? It’s just cumbersome to keep it, so I’ll neatly chop it off for you.”
At those words, Tae-hwon’s eyes hardened.
‘Indeed, a finger isn’t enough to atone for my sins. An arm, though…’
He met President Hwang’s gaze as he chewed on the cigarette filter. His eyes shone with a sharp light.
“Even though Woo Tae-hwon is an amnesiac now and poses no threat, who knows what might happen later. If he regains his memory and seeks revenge on Jeun, Kwon Rae-i and that crazy bastard will be in trouble too. We need to make him at least half-crippled to prevent future problems.”
‘Prevent any possible danger in advance…?’
Is he looking at a dead fire again?
Tae-hwon furrowed his brow deeply and tensed his jaw. He could see where Kwon Rae-i had learned his meticulousness. Unlike his rough and menacing appearance, President Hwang was a man who relentlessly pressured his opponents. Tae-hwon had no other choice.
If Tae-hwon backed out now, the talks would obviously fall apart.
He would become an enemy of President Hwang, be driven out of Jeun, and Kwon Rae-i’s fate would become uncertain.
From the start, Tae-hwon had no choice.
‘An arm isn’t too precious, though.’
The price of gaining Jeun as an ally.
The price of making Kwon Rae-i the chairman of Gyeongjeong.
Furthermore, the price of saving Kwon Rae-i.
If he added up all those values, he could give up Woo Tae-hwon’s worn-out right arm a hundred times over. However, he hesitated slightly because of the care Kwon Rae-i had put into helping Tae-hwon recover his arm. Throughout the rehabilitation, Kwon Rae-i had taken care of Tae-hwon’s right arm more meticulously than Tae-hwon himself.
He had nursed it day and night with utmost devotion, cared for it, and massaged it every day…
‘…Tsk.’
Kwon Rae-i would be sad.
Would he be upset? He might even be terrifyingly angry.
What would his real reaction be?
What expression would he make, what would he say, and with what eyes would he look at Tae-hwon…?