90.
BANG!
Someone rammed into the car from behind as it traveled down a quiet road. Normally, when an accident occurs, both parties get out to check the damage, call the police or insurance, and resolve the issue. But the person who emerged from the vehicle behind seemed to have a different purpose.
He approached with gleaming eyes, holding a hand axe. Seeing him, Choi Mujin sighed softly and set down the tablet he had managed to secure despite the crash.
“How many is this now?”
At Mujin’s question, Seo Miso, who was in the driver’s seat instead of the busy Park Dongsu, gritted her teeth.
“The third time.”
Chairman Jang, backed into a corner, was gradually losing his mind. At first, he had tried to find his wife who had returned to her family home, but she refused to meet him. Even when he caught her leaving the house, all he received was a cold expression. Now it seemed he had changed his target.
Initially, he had made some effort to reconcile, but as they say, one’s nature doesn’t change easily. Instead of reconciliation, Chairman Jang chose another method. If he could just remove Choi Mujin, there would be no immediate replacement. Though Baek Sira was gradually shaking Isaac Finance, she wasn’t well-versed in this area.
‘She was raised too delicately.’
While thinking this, Seo Miso asked Mujin:
“What should we do?”
“How many are there?”
“Four. No, five. There could be more.”
“Deal with them and let’s go.”
In any case, they had deliberately ambushed in a deserted area. That meant there would be no witnesses if they did something. They must be confident to approach like this.
Choi Mujin pulled on his leather gloves and got out of the car. Seo Miso, who followed him, held a heavy leather strap in her hand. It was something she often used as a makeshift whip.
“Have you contacted anyone?”
“I sent our location to the team leader.”
Park Dongsu would come running as soon as he checked the message. As the two got out of the car, the men who had been waiting snickered. No matter how well-built or skilled a fighter Choi Mujin was, it was not easy to overcome numbers. Plus, Seo Miso was a woman.
“But those guys don’t look Korean.”
“The chairman has some connections in that area too.”
“Wow. He’s really determined.”
However, there was one thing the men who were slowly closing in with the intent to kill Mujin hadn’t anticipated. He reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out something heavy and gleaming. Then he calmly pointed it at those surrounding him.
“W-what!”
A gun. Though guns were difficult to obtain and use in Korea, it wasn’t impossible. When Mujin suddenly pulled out a gun, the men began eyeing each other. At that moment, Seo Miso leaped in, swinging her leather strap.
“Idiots!”
Thinking Mujin couldn’t shoot with his ally in the mix, they all tried to get close to Seo Miso. Some rushed at Mujin, but it wasn’t a wise decision.
Mujin was quite proficient with guns, and Seo Miso was wearing a bulletproof vest. A shot to the body would still hurt, but it wouldn’t be fatal. Thus, he used the gun without hesitation.
With the muffled sound through the silencer, people began collapsing one by one. Amid this, Seo Miso, who was darting around, wasn’t hit by a single bullet. Instead, she left marks on several men that wouldn’t easily disappear. While they were in the midst of this, Mujin’s phone in his pocket suddenly rang.
“Hmm.”
Despite being in the middle of a fight, Mujin answered the phone without hesitation. His opponent looked incredulous, but Mujin didn’t care. There wasn’t an immediate voice when he answered.
The first time Haseo had called, he had chattered away. Mujin had been deeply immersed in Haseo’s voice as he spoke to him as if he had forgotten his hatred. Mujin had tried to find Haseo, but Ryu Jiyeon had hidden him well. On top of that, other matters had piled up, making it difficult for him to move freely.
In such a situation, Haseo calling first was precious. But after the initial chattiness, subsequent calls were different. Sometimes there would only be soft breathing sounds before hanging up, and at times there would be no contact for over a week. Then suddenly, he would call, talk about what he had eaten that day, and cry.
“I want to forget, but I can’t.”
At Haseo’s words, Mujin’s body trembled slightly. What he had so ardently desired came from Haseo’s lips. He wanted Haseo to never forget him. Whether it was a good feeling or a bad one. He wanted to be at the very top of Haseo’s thoughts.
Today, Haseo had been silent for a while. After a long time of just breathing sounds, he finally spoke.
“You bastard.”
Then he strung together all the curses he knew. Compared to the insults Mujin had heard before, these were cute, making him involuntarily smile.
“Yes, I’m a bastard.”
“You’re crazy.”
Mujin answered Haseo’s words to the best of his ability. The problem was that the other guy with a weapon in front of him was also listening.
“That, that guy’s really crazy?”
He had barely approached Mujin, avoiding the frantically moving Seo Miso, only to find Mujin smiling and on the phone. He still held the gun, but there seemed to be an opening. The man shook his head, gritted his teeth, and threw a hand axe at Mujin. As Mujin tilted his head to avoid it, the man threw a second axe, but suddenly his shoulder felt hot.
“Bang!”
Mujin made the gun sound with his mouth and lifted the corners of his lips.
“F-fuck!”
But the man didn’t stop. The advance payment he had received and the money he would get after completing the job—it was an amount that could change his life in one go.
“What’s ‘bang’? Are you crazy?”
“Sorry, I’m working right now.”
“That’s a lie. Who does that while working?”
On the other end of the phone, Haseo was still berating Mujin. This time, Mujin shot the man rushing at him in the thigh. He then wedged the phone between his jaw and shoulder, and with his freed hand, reloaded the gun. Though he hadn’t served in the military for various reasons, he had learned enough about handling weapons.
Mujin disabled the remaining leg and arm of the man who was rolling on the ground, screaming. Around that time, Park Dongsu arrived.
“Director!”
“Wow, Team Leader, you came so quickly.”
Seo Miso clapped with the weapon tucked at her side. By the time he arrived, all the men had already been dealt with. The relatively intact ones were bound with tape, and the others were neatly piled up on one side of the road. Fortunately, no one had passed by during this time.
“What a mess!”
When Kim Chunbong, who had come along, blazed with anger, Seo Miso rolled her eyes and stopped her hands. They quickly loaded the men back into the cars and cleaned up the traces left on the road. Afterward, one of them got into the car behind and took the wheel.
Throughout all this, Mujin was still on the phone.
“No, it’s nothing, really. Just a minor car accident. Yeah, no. No one got hurt.”
Where did such lies come from? But among those present, no one had the courage to speak the truth.
“I’ll find out who they are and deal with them.”
Kim Chunbong volunteered for the task. He knew Park Dongsu had been very busy lately.
“Then I’ll return to my duties. Seo, take good care of the Director.”
“Yes, I’ll escort him carefully.”
With that, the remaining people all got into the car.
“Damn you.”
Once inside the car, the voice from the other end of the phone came through clearly. Whatever had angered him, his voice was quite loud. Still, Mujin, who was taking the call, looked pleased. But Seo Miso didn’t trust appearances alone. Despite acting so unhinged, if he were to bring Lee Haseo back, he would confine him somewhere like before. Having spent years with him, she knew her boss quite well.
That nature wouldn’t change with the passage of time. People don’t change easily. Seo Miso thought this as she started the car.
Haseo hung up the phone and banged his head on the table. The commotion from the other end had bothered him throughout the call. He had heard someone saying to kill the bastard, and the sound of something being struck.
Only then did he recall what kind of work Choi Mujin actually did. Given the current situation in Korea, it wouldn’t be strange if his life was threatened. Knowing this, but actually hearing such sounds…
‘I’m anxious.’
What if Choi Mujin died like that? He already knew where his grandmother’s body was, so it shouldn’t matter what happened to Mujin. He felt pathetic for not being able to think that way.
Haseo picked up the bottle on the table. Today, instead of wine, he had procured whiskey. It was strong liquor, and even after drinking just a little, his head was spinning. Perhaps that’s why his words had been more primal than usual.
“I’m dizzy.”
He didn’t know what to do.
What to do…
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
