Chapter 3
Bang! Bang! Crash!
After holding out for a bit, the old iron front door finally gave way helplessly to the fierce kicks and broke apart.
The inside of the house beyond the creaking door was as quiet as a tomb. Taeju, who had been looking around constantly, clicked his tongue briefly and said,
“Looks like this bastard ran off somewhere again.”
At Taeju’s words, Jeonghyeok, who was standing behind him, chuckled.
“Not a chance.”
The guy wouldn’t leave this place. He couldn’t. They all knew that when they came here. He’d been rolling around in this world for 17 years. He wouldn’t break down someone’s front door without that much intuition.
Jeonghyeok stepped on the yellowed, faded linoleum with his shoe.
Past the entrance that was too embarrassing to even call an entrance, there was immediately a small sink. One step ahead in the room, bedding was spread out, and next to that, you had to go up a shallow step to reach the bathroom.
Jeonghyeok’s gaze, which had been carefully scanning the cramped house, stopped at that bathroom door.
“Open that.”
At the brief instruction, Taeju nodded lightly and headed toward the bathroom. It was only about three steps away anyway.
“It’s locked.”
As expected, the bathroom door was locked. When Jeonghyeok gave a slight nod, Taeju stepped back about half a step. Then he kicked the bathroom door handle with all his might.
Bang—an impact sound rang out. The bathroom door, much weaker than the front door, was immediately destroyed. When he kicked the dangling door handle once more with his foot, the door slid open.
A man was sitting on his knees in front of it. It was the person Jeonghyeok had been looking for.
“There you are.”
Jeonghyeok approached the man with a grinning face. Step by step, at the sound of slow footsteps, the man squeezed his eyes shut and buried his head on the floor.
“B-boss-nim! Please, just once. Just once, please have mercy.”
It was quite a desperate tone. Well, who wouldn’t be desperate with the two men who had beaten him nearly to death standing in front of him?
The day he was caught having gambled away all 20 million won he had borrowed under the pretense of surgery expenses, the man had been beaten literally to the brink of death in front of the house. His face was still a mess because of the injuries from that time. His eyes were bruised black and blue, and blood scabs were stuck to the corners of his mouth.
Not just his face—his body wasn’t intact either. His stomach, which had been kicked by Taeju multiple times, still felt like it would tear apart.
The man had been released after promising to pay back at least the interest faithfully. A week had passed since then, but he hadn’t paid the promised interest, which was why this mess was happening now.
The man rubbed his palms together and pleaded.
“Two weeks, no, ten days would be enough. I, I got a job. Even if I have to get an advance, I’ll definitely pay it back in ten days.”
Jeonghyeok quietly looked down at the sobbing man. It was a gaze whose thoughts were impossible to gauge.
The man just hoped Jeonghyeok would believe his words. Getting a job was a lie, but it was true that money would fall into his hands in ten days.
After some silence passed, Jeonghyeok’s right hand suddenly shot upward. Soon, a resounding friction sound rang out with a slap. His pot-lid-sized hand had struck the man’s left cheek.
At the shock that rang through his head, the man lost his balance and collapsed.
“Taeju.”
“Yes.”
“Lift him up.”
Taeju grabbed the collapsed man by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up. Red blood flowing from inside his mouth dripped down to his chin.
“Lift your head.”
When the man lifted his head with a groan, Jeonghyeok slapped his cheek once more. A much sharper sound than before cut through the air.
Cough, cough. Even at the sound of coughing mixed with blood, Jeonghyeok opened his mouth without concern.
“Let me be clear.”
“Cough, huh, ugh.”
“I won’t take money made by selling your daughter.”
For a moment, dismay flashed across the man’s face.
“H-how did you…”
Investigating debtors was basic among basics. The man was raising his daughter alone without a wife. More accurately, he was just keeping her around.
When the prospects of paying back the money became distant, the guy had started sending his daughter to the coffee shop in front of the house two days ago. It was called a coffee shop, but it was a place where countless people would serve coffee, sit next to customers for meaningless conversations, and then go to second rounds.
The problem here was that his daughter was still a minor. She would turn twenty after her birthday this year, but legally she was still a minor.
Just borrowing money with the lie about surgery expenses was enough to make him want to twist the guy’s neck, but now he was offering money earned by selling the body of a girl whose blood hadn’t even dried on her head yet.
“You’re treating me like a fucking fool.”
Frankly speaking, no matter what the source of the money was, as long as it was paid back to him, that would be enough. But Jeonghyeok had to eliminate anything that went against his mood, whatever it was, to feel satisfied. He was born with that kind of temperament and couldn’t bear it even if he tried.
This bastard needed a warning. A warning that if he looked down on me one more time, he might disappear without a trace.
“I’ll give you ten days, so keep your promise.”
“……”
“If it’s really hard, sell your asshole or something to make money. I know plenty of good places.”
What should have clearly been a joke sounded quite serious, so the man unconsciously tensed the inside of his thighs.
Watching that sight, Jeonghyeok let out a sneer and turned around.
“Let’s go.”
Behind Jeonghyeok, who stepped cleanly over the floor that was a mess with the broken door, Taeju followed.
His back was imposing as he walked out with his hands in his pockets. Taeju stared at Jeonghyeok’s retreating figure for a moment, then lowered his gaze.
Even though he had lived as that man’s shadow for over 8 years now, Taeju still couldn’t understand his depths.
He felt no guilt about beating people to a pulp, yet sometimes he showed compassionate sides like this. He made excuses with words like it was disgusting to look at or it put him in a fucking bad mood, but in the end, he was displeased about selling an underage daughter for money.
All people have multiple facets simultaneously. They can seem lively but sometimes be taciturn, or seem prickly but occasionally affectionate.
Moon Jeonghyeok was fundamentally ruthless and cruel. He was exactly the type of person the expression “without blood or tears” fit perfectly.
But just looking at how he had taken in Taeju, who had nowhere to go, showed that he had some compassion. The reason he had just slapped that man’s cheek was surely because he pitied the poor life of the young girl.
Over the years of assisting Jeonghyeok, Taeju came to that conclusion.
“Hyung-nim, where should we go for dinner?”
Opening the back door of the parked car, Taeju asked.
“Somewhere close.”
“Is pork belly okay? The place we went to a few days ago.”
Jeonghyeok’s expressionless face was lost in thought for a moment. The place they went to a few days ago…
‘You… left this behind.’
The face of the part-timer who had chased after him holding his coat flashed by. He remembered those eyes that looked up at him resolutely even while trembling were quite clear.
Getting into the back seat, Jeonghyeok nodded lightly and said,
“Sure.”
***
Ding-a-ling—the sound came as Cheolpan-jip’s entrance door opened.
“Welcome.”
Yuwon, who greeted with a somewhat excited voice, immediately became dejected as soon as he confirmed the customer’s face. He was just wearing a black suit, not the person he had been hoping for.
After guiding the customer to an empty seat and taking their order, he entered the order details into the POS system. There was no strength at all in the hand pressing the screen.
For several days now, Yuwon had tensed up whenever he saw someone wearing a black suit. Wondering if it might be that man he was waiting for.
But the man hadn’t come to the restaurant since that day, and Yuwon repeated the cycle of getting his hopes up and being disappointed like now.
Once, he had wondered why exactly he was waiting for that man.
Did he want to return the coat? Or did he want to at least say thank you for saving him from Boss Park’s verbal abuse?
Thoughts led to more thoughts, but no clear answer emerged. It was as if some magic had been cast on that black coat—ever since he had slept covered by the coat, the man’s face kept floating around in his head.
He should have just offered to pay for dry cleaning. With that excuse, he could have somehow gotten the man’s number. Even if he got rejected and told no, he should have at least tried. If he had, at least he wouldn’t be flinching at every black piece of clothing like now.
As he was repeating useless regrets, he heard the sound of the door opening once more.
“Welcome…”
This time he greeted weakly. The man wouldn’t come anyway.
But the moment he saw the face of the customer who entered the restaurant, Yuwon opened his mouth slightly. Wondering if he was seeing things, he squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again.
However, this man who had bent his waist to enter through the door that was small compared to his body was definitely the person Yuwon had been waiting for so long.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
