66
A back alley somewhere in Juhang.
As if finding vitality only when covered by darkness, every corner of the district glowed with lights.
The floating rumors were so vicious that no one openly came and went from this place. It was just that when big guys came out to the quiet streets to wait for someone, that someone would appear from the end of the road.
The social positions of people who visited the streets were diverse. There were job categories often mentioned as children’s future dreams, and there were those who lived third-rate lives but had deep pockets. It didn’t matter if they fell into neither category. In this street. In this district called Juhang’s Gaepan, money was both language and position. No matter what kind of life you lived outside, if you just brought money, you could play like an immortal for one night.
Even in Gaepan, where there was rarely anything noisy, exceptions existed. It wasn’t because of outsiders, because of people who didn’t know the physiology of the streets. The commotion always came from near the same building. Today was the same.
“Hey, you fucking bastard, shut your mouth when I’m talking nicely.”
“You shut the fuck up. Son of a bitch.”
Even facing three grown men, one man wasn’t intimidated. When they pretended to hit, he would just strike back harder. Toward the thug who raised his hand saying “This fucking bastard,” the man threw his fist first. With an “Urgh” sound, as the man who grabbed his nose took a couple steps back, the two men next to him pressed close to the man.
“Ha, fucking bastard… Hey… Are you acting up because you trust the boss? You bastard?”
“Why would I trust your boss, fuck. Fucking hell.”
The man even rubbed the back of his hands. It was like a warning that he would hit harder this time. The two thugs were just waving their fists while watching each other’s reactions. They wanted to hit but seemed like something was holding them back, an attitude that they couldn’t quite throw their arms. Then, the man rushed forward first and struck the thug’s cheek with his fist. The thug who had only been pretending fell backward and landed on his butt.
“Hey, you come here too.”
The man who glared at the remaining one clenched his fists tighter. The one remaining thug just grasped at empty air with a face asking what kind of bastard this was. The sigh that scattered into the darkness was a bonus.
“Crazy mad dog bastard. Just do one round?”
“Who started it first, fuck.”
“So fucking… let’s stop this.”
The thug with wide eyes stretched out his words saying “let’s stop this.” It was a threatening face, but it didn’t seem to work on the man at all. The man, who got more pissed at the threatening words, mercilessly struck the face that came close with his palm. Smack. The intensity was so strong that the sound of flesh hitting flesh rang loudly around them. It was when the thug who grabbed his instantly reddened face was about to rush at the man.
“Hey, hey. Fuck. Stop it.”
The thug who had been hit once and fell on his butt grabbed the excited thug’s pants leg and hung on.
“I’m going to properly educate this fucking bitch today. Fuck!”
Still, when his spirit didn’t die down, even the thug who had been hit in the nose stood in front of that thug. Despite having traces of wiped nosebleed, he was trying to stop the fight. The excited thug, blocked by the two thugs, yelled loudly “Fuck!”
If it were a normal street, passersby would have come to watch, but in Gaepan there were no people passing by at all. No matter how viciously they caused a ruckus, they would just become a crazy bastard barking alone.
“Aaaah!”
“Stop being crazy.”
At the man’s words added mockingly, the nosebleed guy looked back.
“Hey. Go. Aren’t you going? Fuck off, bastard.”
“What fuck off. I need to sell alcohol. You guys fuck off.”
“Ha, this fucking bastard really.”
The thug bit his lower lip hard as if holding back his temper.
The thugs were employees of the underground bar <JAM>. <JAM> was owned by Jang Heungcheol and boasted the oldest tradition in the area. Because owner Jang Heungcheol’s reputation was so great, it was also a bar more famous as <Jang Heungcheol’s Place> than <JAM>. The bars in Gaepan weren’t regular bars. They only had the names bar, karaoke, club attached, but the establishments connected underground were full of thick doors. Those doors only opened after identity was confirmed, and each room had different uses.
<Pharmacy> overflowed with various drugs, and <Health Club> had male Omegas residing there, handling massage and sex. Regular customers drank and received entertainment at <Tea House>, and <House> was the VIP room.
The reason the man was confronting the thugs was because JAM’s Jang Heungcheol wanted to employ the man. The man who drove trucks and distributed alcohol had been suffering from thugs for several years.
When he first came down to Juhang, he worked part-time at a restaurant, but because of expensive hospital bills, he got involved with illegal private loans. The young man at the time couldn’t have good credit. There wasn’t enough time to look into banks more. The man came to Juhang while pregnant with a child, and was in a situation where he needed surgery to abort the child. That’s when he saw the illegal loan flyer stuck on the outer wall of a cheap motel.
The man couldn’t even go to the hospital after receiving that money. It was already at a point where his belly was quite protruding. When he touched it, he could feel wriggling, so from some point on, he didn’t even put his hands there. The borrowed money was 5 million won, and the illegal surgery fee was exactly 5 million won, which also bothered him. Once the money was actually in his hands, he became greedy for warm meals and a room where he could stretch out his legs and lie down. In the end, the man rented a studio apartment on the outskirts of Juhang, excluding the 8,000 won per day inn room. With a 3 million won deposit.
Life didn’t flow as planned like that. Plans often wavered depending on how you felt that day, and sometimes the purpose itself changed.
That winter, the man couldn’t execute his plan to give birth to the child and send it to an adoption agency either. He looked at the baby with indifference, but he named that child and brought the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes to the studio apartment.
At the hospital, the baby was diagnosed as an Alpha. The moment small needles were stuck in the soles of its feet and blood trickled out, the panel of the testing device absorbed that blood. Both on the LCD of the testing device and on the small printed paper, Alpha gender was clearly recorded. It was strange. When all the fathers had that chaos in high school, how could a baby be born as a normal Alpha? That thought was the last. The man fell asleep again, intoxicated by anesthesia.
The man knew nothing. When the baby cried, he only repeated words like “Hey, don’t cry, stop.” Even when it cried because the water mixed with formula was hot, he didn’t know why it was crying. Eventually, after taking care of the baby himself for about 2 weeks, he hired a nanny. Since he was planning to work anyway, he thought it worked out well. The problem was that the money going to the nanny was also considerable. He was paying back 1.5 million won of loan shark debt, plus various living expenses and management fees. Adding the cost of using a nanny, it came to over 4 million won per month.
The private loan was nothing more than “thug work with documents” that Juhang’s thugs engaged in. The interest compounded monthly, and the principal could only be repaid along with 10 months’ worth of interest. Even when he later argued that the contract was ridiculous, it didn’t work with the <Hope Loans> manager.
‘Hey, our hyung-nim is really acting strange.’
‘Look at this. Even the lawyer says this. I borrowed 500, but paid 2,000 just in interest. Is this normal?’
‘Then what can we do? We made the contract like that.’
‘They say such contracts have no legal effect, so I’m going to quit here.’
‘No way. It’s a mutual contract between us. If hyung-nim backs out alone, what do I do? Are you going to abandon me?’
‘That’s not it. Look here.’
‘Hm?’
‘Anyway, I’m not paying back. It doesn’t make sense.’
‘What does it matter if it doesn’t make sense? Just accept it. Hyung-nim, do you want to die by any chance?’
‘Such threats don’t work anymore either.’
‘Won’t they work? Hyung-nim has a son too. Don’t you think about him?’
‘Son of a bitch.’
‘Really strange. At a glance, I just think you’re handsome. But hearing you gave birth to a kid gets me going? I’ve never fucked with a man, you know? Are you chewy, hyung-nim? Do you bite well?’
<Hope Loans> had several employees. They were all big guys wearing black suits, and some had their shirts off. When you heard thudding sounds from the corner and turned your eyes, someone was getting beaten there. The man didn’t deal with other employees, always only consulting with the manager. There seemed to be some employees who looked naive, but even when he tried to have conversations with them, the manager would appear from behind saying “Hyung-nim, you have to do it with me” and drag the man away. Conversations were always like that. They always ended with sexual harassment.
‘Fuck off. Bastard.’
Even the man who had gathered lawyer materials with great determination got angry at the same conclusion. He spat out his usual curses and got up from his seat. It was always, consistently, fruitless work.
<Hope Loans> manager Jang Ihwan was also the eldest son of <JAM> owner Jang Heungcheol.
The reason he swaggered around the office with the title of loan company manager at twenty-four was significant.
The man had only heard through rumors that Jang Ihwan’s father was Jang Heungcheol. Since it was a field with so many backstories, talk about who was whose son was common. It wasn’t particularly something to care about. Whether it was JAM or Hope Loans, they were just shackles he had to escape from. The man unilaterally cut off the conversation and got up from his seat. He had requested a human-like conversation for once. As expected, conversations should only be had with humans.
The man came outside and trudged down the stairs.
The man’s face was reflected in the large congratulatory opening mirror.
What had time changed?
The man, Taein, was no longer a child. Worn down by work and worn down by money, he had become twenty-five. It had been over 5 years since he held out in Juhang. During that time, he had fought countless battles, leaving scars on Taein’s face. Scratched marks above his eyebrow bone. Traces where his ear was torn and reattached. He had lived tenaciously and still had breath left, but his appearance was far from good. He was injured and sick all over.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
