At dawn, two black SUVs pulled to a stop in front of the Munmak Service Area on the Yeongdong Expressway.
When the doors opened, burly men came pouring out. Every one of them had a vicious look about him, and the most vicious of them all was Jo Eokbae, team leader of Seongun Capital’s Special Collections Team. In the dim light of dawn, his cold eyes flashed as sharp as blades.
“How much farther?”
“Yes, Team Leader. It looks like we’ve got at least two more hours to the destination.”
The subordinate standing beside him spoke awkwardly. Jo Eokbae glanced once at his face, then wordlessly put a cigarette between his lips.
“What a fucking day.”
The cigarette smoke they exhaled in silence billowed into the dawn air.
After a brief silence, the subordinate cautiously spoke up.
“Still, isn’t this a bit strange, Team Leader? No matter how much of a doctor he is, for the boss to lend that much money without a single piece of collateral…”
Jo Eokbae shot him a sharp look. The subordinate flinched and lowered his voice.
“It’s not like that doctor could suddenly earn two billion won, right? Especially out in some backwater like that.”
Instead of answering, Jo Eokbae took a harsh drag on his cigarette, threw it away, and lit a new one. The pack he had opened when they set out was nearly empty already.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Why the hell do we have to drag ourselves all the way down to this fucking backwater at the crack of dawn? Shit.”
Irritation and exhaustion were tangled in his voice. He had been out drinking and fooling around until late last night, only to be called in before he could even get any sleep. The boss was the type to sleep early and wake early, so for Jo Eokbae, a night owl, there were many exhausting days.
The subordinate muttered in an even smaller voice.
“Still, since it’s something the boss did, there must be some hidden meaning behind it, right?”
Jo Eokbae ground out his cigarette on the ground and irritably rubbed the back of his neck. Maybe because he was under so much stress, the back of his head felt stiff.
“Hidden meaning, my ass. He just believes whatever that shaman bitch tells him. Said that doctor bastard’s fortune showed he’d become some big shot or whatever.”
“But the boss has never failed to collect on someone he picked, has he?”
“Hey, you little shit. It’s all superstition. Superstition. Does that shaman bitch go around collecting money herself? We’re the ones busting our asses to bring it in.”
Jo Eokbae smacked the back of his subordinate’s head, then stretched and drew in a deep breath of the cold dawn air.
The boss had told them only to scare him, but that was the kind of thing someone sitting comfortably and giving orders could say. If Jo Eokbae met the doctor bastard who had made him suffer this much, he intended to break at least a few of his fingers.
The subordinate nodded, but his eyes were still full of questions. Even so, he asked nothing more. If it was an order from President Ha Doyun, then no matter what it was, it was absolute to them.
“Enough. Let’s move. Before the doctor catches on and runs.”
When Jo Eokbae climbed into the SUV, his subordinates hurried after him.
Soon, the two black vehicles were swallowed by the darkness of dawn.
As they wound their way up the mountain road, Jo Eokbae’s cell phone rang loudly.
The words on the screen read: “Boss.”
Jo Eokbae straightened his back and answered the call.
“Yes, boss.”
A low, slow voice came through.
‘Team Leader Jo. They told me you should be careful today.’
“Pardon?”
‘Gwihwa Seonnyeo said that if you happen to see three crows, something terrible will happen. She said you must absolutely be careful.’
“Crows?”
‘Yes. She says they’re grim reapers. I told you before, didn’t I? Grim reapers move in teams of three. She said you, especially, need to be careful today.’
Ha Doyun’s voice sounded like he was joking, but he was serious.
Jo Eokbae gave a hollow laugh inwardly and answered.
“Well, it’s the countryside. Won’t there be a crow or two? Don’t worry. I’m not going to die.”
‘Team Leader Jo. Don’t brush this off. Pay attention. After I listened to Gwihwa Seonnyeo and lent money, have I ever failed to collect?’
That’s because I go grab those bastards by the neck and wring it out of them.
Jo Eokbae swallowed back the words he wanted to say and replied.
“Yes. Understood, boss.”
‘Don’t drag it out. That friend of yours still won’t have been able to prepare such a huge sum, so just take whatever money he has, scare him a little, and finish it as a day trip.’
Click. When the call ended, Jo Eokbae clicked his tongue.
His subordinates glanced at him through the rearview mirror and asked.
“What did the boss say?”
“Says if I see three crows, I’m going straight to the afterlife. Honestly, is that something you say to a guy going to work? This is why superstition is the biggest problem in our country. Superstition’s got this country going to hell…”
Worked up, Jo Eokbae sprayed spit as he delivered a full speech to his subordinates about the irrationality of superstition, then grew tired of it on his own and waved his hand.
“Ah, forget it. We just need to do what we always do.”
His heart was pounding and he was even breaking out in a cold sweat. He was in terrible condition for a long-distance trip.
“Fuck, making a living is miserable.”
Jo Eokbae sank into the back seat and closed his eyes.
His subordinates thought that since Jo Eokbae was especially irritable today compared to usual, they had better watch themselves.
The vehicle was climbing the mountain road. Outside the window, black pine trees flashed past quickly.
***
The two SUVs entered the village road.
The people of Geumsan-ri, seeing the fierce-looking men pour out of the cars, stepped back in fright.
“Hey, old man. Where’s Geumsan Clinic? You don’t understand Korean? I asked where it is!”
When Jo Eokbae’s subordinates shouted rudely, the villagers anxiously pointed toward the clinic.
The people of Geumsan-ri began to stir at the sight of the collections team, so different from the wealthy outsiders who came and went from Geumsan Clinic.
“Oh my, look at those tattoos.”
“What’re people like that doing in our village?”
“Good heavens, those nasty fellows. Look at the fire in their eyes. Ain’t somebody gonna end up dead today?”
The people of Geumsan-ri kept glancing around nervously, edging away in case their eyes met the Special Collections Team’s.
“Team Leader, they say Geumsan Clinic is that way.”
At his subordinate’s report, Jo Eokbae slowly got out of the car and looked around.
As expected of a backwater, shabby buildings stood out. But in front of Geumsan Clinic, quite a few cars were parked. Mixed among them were expensive foreign cars and SUVs that clearly did not suit the village at a glance.
Jo Eokbae frowned for a moment.
“Is this the right place? What are foreign cars doing in a backwater like this?”
His subordinates also scanned the surroundings with puzzled expressions. The hospital with the sign reading Geumsan Clinic looked at first glance like an ordinary rural clinic, but the atmosphere of the people entering and leaving was different.
“Well, so what if there are a lot of people? Let’s watch how that doctor bastard tries to weasel out of this.”
Jo Eokbae folded his arms and spoke coldly. His subordinates began moving toward Geumsan Clinic.
At that moment, a sharp cry came from the sky.
Caw, caw—
A crow flew overhead.
Jo Eokbae unconsciously lifted his gaze.
Then a second crow followed, and right after it, a third crow flew past as well. By coincidence, three crows had crossed the sky side by side.
“Huh?”
Jo Eokbae’s face stiffened for an instant.
A subordinate spoke in a trembling voice.
“T-Team Leader. Isn’t that the omen the boss mentioned earlier? Three crows!”
“Shut up. It’s just a coincidence. What’s the big deal about a few crows in the mountains?”
Though he said that, an ominous feeling was blooming in one corner of Jo Eokbae’s heart.
President Ha Doyun’s words echoed in his head.
‘Gwihwa Seonnyeo said that if you happen to see three crows, you must absolutely be careful. She says they’re grim reapers.’
Feeling goosebumps rise along the back of his neck, he spat sharply on the ground.
When I meet this doctor bastard, I’m really not letting him off.
“Let’s get inside.”
As if trying to shake off his ominous thoughts, Jo Eokbae shoved the door open roughly.
When the door opened, everyone sitting in the waiting room turned to look at them at once. At the sudden appearance of the fierce-looking men, the atmosphere instantly turned cold.
Nurse Park Geumja, who had been standing at the desk, instinctively tensed and stared at them. Her long experience was warning her.
‘These people are absolutely not ordinary patients.’
Jo Eokbae quickly swept the waiting room with a sharp gaze, then strode toward Park Geumja.
“Ma’am, where’s the director’s office?”
Without panicking, Park Geumja spoke in a calm tone.
“The director is seeing patients right now. Please make an appointment first.”
“An appointment?”
Jo Eokbae snorted.
“No way someone who came to collect money needs something like that. Call the doctor out here while I’m still being nice.”
The patients in the lobby exchanged anxious looks.
Park Geumja unconsciously gripped the pen in her hand even tighter. The two nursing assistants hid behind her, trembling.
Just then, the examination room door opened and Taeho appeared. He had come out because of the commotion outside.
“What’s going on?”
The moment Taeho’s eyes met the familiar men standing in the lobby, he steadied himself.
‘Seongun Capital. They finally came all the way here.’
Jo Eokbae approached Taeho with a sharp smile.
“Hey, we’ve met before, haven’t we? Did you think that if you hid in a backwater like this, we wouldn’t come looking for you?”
In that brief moment, countless scenarios flashed through Taeho’s mind.
The eyes of the patients and villagers watching with bated breath.
If he had a problem with these men here, it could deal a fatal blow to the clinic and his own reputation.
Keeping his expression as composed as possible, Taeho spoke to Jo Eokbae.
“Let’s not do this here. We can talk inside.”
Seeing Taeho’s calm face, Jo Eokbae was dumbfounded. His insides boiled.
‘Look at this shameless bastard. Some of us can’t even sleep, running ourselves ragged from dawn to collect money, and the debtor himself is acting all relaxed? He should be on his knees right here, crying and begging, and even that wouldn’t be enough…’
Jo Eokbae’s expression grew more and more vicious. Holding back his anger, he spat out one more remark.
“You know your debt is two billion won, right? But seeing how calm you are, what, are you planning to hand over an organ or something?”
“I intend to repay the money right away. Look. I’ve already prepared it.”
With a calm motion, Taeho tapped the screen of his phone and held it up for them to see. The balance of his bank account was displayed in the banking app.
[3,305,230,021 won]
Three point three billion…?
It was an enormous sum, hard to believe even with his own eyes.
At Taeho’s confident attitude, Jo Eokbae and his subordinates’ eyes widened at the same time.
What the hell is going on? Last time, he was definitely a broke bastard…
Jo Eokbae was speechless for a moment, then his face quickly flushed red. Anger, bewilderment, and a hard-to-explain sense of emptiness wrapped around his body.
“You… you fraud-like son of a bitch…!”
The moment Jo Eokbae shouted, unable to control his surging rage—
“Ghk!”
Jo Eokbae suddenly clutched his chest.
His subordinates standing behind him were startled and rushed forward.
“Team Leader, what’s wrong?”
“Khak!”
In an instant, Jo Eokbae’s breath caught and he collapsed to the floor. His chest hurt as if it were being split open with an axe. His face was already drenched in cold sweat.
“Eek!”
The inside of the clinic turned into chaos in an instant.
The collections team crowded around Jo Eokbae with panicked faces.
Taeho pushed his way through them and shouted.
“Nurse Park. Call an ambulance first.”
Park Geumja quickly picked up the phone.
Taeho calmly checked Jo Eokbae’s condition.
-Patient health indicators detected. Initiating scan mode.
-Signs of cardiac ischemia confirmed. Blood pressure below 90/60, pulse extremely irregular.
Taeho shouted.
“Nurse Park, prepare an ECG immediately, and put an oxygen mask on him first! Start monitoring his blood pressure and oxygen saturation right away!”
The collections team, standing around at a loss, heard Taeho’s thunderous bark.
“You people! Don’t just stand there. Move him to a bed!”