The scent of roses was dizzyingly strong, but Ja-kyung's every nerve was focused on Kang Il-hyun sitting beside him. Why had he touched his hand? What was he trying to confirm? But throughout the car ride, Kang Il-hyun only gazed out the window without saying anything.
In the suffocating silence, the sedan crossed Incheon Bridge. Over the sea, hazy floating things drifted—it was impossible to tell if they were fog or dust. After passing the long bridge, buildings appeared. It had been nearly five years since his last visit.
Whenever he set foot on Korean soil, old memories surfaced anew. They weren't sad or choking emotions. He sometimes imagined if his parents were still alive, but even if they were, there was no guarantee life would be better than now.
Beaten to death or starved to death, or if lucky enough to survive, they would have become drug addicts.
"Have you visited Korea before?"
Kang Il-hyun, who had been looking out the window, asked abruptly. Ja-kyung smiled faintly and nodded. He had to gain his favor somehow and find out the location of the safe. That was a more difficult task than killing him. Technically, killing him could be done right here and now.
"I came a few times with my mother. To visit my grandfather."
"I see. You speak Korean better than I expected."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"We met in Tokyo before. Do you remember?"
He had no idea about that. He'd heard that Jang Ian was a figure shrouded in mystery who never revealed himself to the outside. His palms sweated and warning bells rang in his head. Ja-kyung was tense but maintained a composed expression.
"Did we? I don't remember..."
"It was very brief. You must have been four or five years old."
Thank goodness. So he hadn't seen him grown up.
"You grabbed my pant leg and cried and threw a tantrum."
"I... did?"
"That was our first meeting, and I still don't know why you did that."
"Haha... that must have been awkward for you."
"Yes. So I hit you. My father scolded me because you got a nosebleed."
The atmosphere turned awkward for a moment. Judging by his expression, he looked regretful that he couldn't beat him more. Ja-kyung was flustered and lost for words. Should he apologize belatedly? Say he was sorry for causing trouble back then? Or was it just meant to make him laugh?
While he was thinking all sorts of things, his phone rang. He thought it was better this way. If only he would just make calls instead of talking to him the whole way.
"Speak."
But his wish wasn't granted. Kang Il-hyun said just one word—'Got it.'—and hung up. Then he immediately called the man named Tae-soo sitting in the front.
"Turn the car around. We're going to the factory."
Yes, understood. Without hesitation, the sedan changed lanes and moved to the U-turn area. The signal changed and the car went back the way it came. Was the factory nearby?
"I'll be a little late getting home. Something came up, so there's somewhere I need to stop by."
So he had to stay stuck in this cramped space even longer? Ja-kyung put on a smile he didn't mean.
"That's fine. And please speak casually. I'm much younger, after all. I'll follow you like an older brother."
But Kang Il-hyun refused immediately.
"Not really. I don't want to do that."
"I see... then please do whatever makes you comfortable."
After smiling, he turned his head and looked out the window. Bastard. Damn picky. After cursing internally, he worried about how to win him over. Before long, a fork in the road appeared and the sedan turned in the opposite direction from before.
He was watching the scenery outside when a small, rhythmic tapping sound reached his ears. Looking beside him, Kang Il-hyun was tapping the window with his finger, looking bored. It was a childish action that didn't match his appearance.
As the car drove on, the number of buildings and cars gradually decreased and fields began to appear. The restaurants that had been occasionally visible became almost impossible to find. Eventually, they left the asphalt road and entered an unpaved road, and despite being such a fine car, the slight swaying of their bodies was unavoidable.
Outside the window, grass as tall as a person grew thickly. It was a scene often seen in horror movies. It felt like a murderer would emerge from the grass, wielding a long sickle and chasing after them. They drove for about 30 more minutes. The car's speed gradually slowed and an old warehouse appeared in the distance.
The warehouse made of containers was too old and shabby to be called a factory. In front of the warehouse, men in black suits were gathered in groups. Most of them were large-built, and an intimidating aura emanated from them even from a distance.
The car stopped a little away from them, and Kang Il-hyun and Park Tae-soo in the front unbuckled their seatbelts almost simultaneously.
"Ian, wait here for a moment."
Ja-kyung nodded. Have a safe trip.
Kang Il-hyun and Park Tae-soo got out of the car and walked toward the warehouse. Judging by the atmosphere, they weren't going there to fight. The men who had been gathered confirmed the two's appearance and scattered efficiently to both sides. Ja-kyung's eyes, which had been watching, grew slightly wider. Through the gap where the group split, one man was kneeling on the ground.
The man's face was covered in blood. Ja-kyung craned his neck with curiosity and watched closely. His eyes met Kang Il-hyun's subordinate in the driver's seat through the rearview mirror, but he didn't care.
When Kang Il-hyun approached, they all bowed their waists 90 degrees in greeting. The blood-soaked man, with his hands tied behind his back, repeatedly bowed his head. The sound couldn't be heard, but he seemed to be pleading for his life.
But Kang Il-hyun didn't seem to have any intention of talking. In the blink of an eye, he pulled a pistol from the waist of a subordinate standing nearby and aimed it at the man. The moment he thought it couldn't be—bang—the gunshot reached the car. The back of the kneeling man's head exploded and he fell forward. Again—
Bang, bang, bang.
After firing three shots in succession at the chest area, Kang Il-hyun returned the gun to its owner and put a cigarette in his mouth. At his gesture, a subordinate nearby immediately took out a butcher knife from his clothes and approached the fallen man, then cut something out.
Kang Il-hyun threw his half-smoked cigarette onto the corpse, then turned and walked back to the car. Ja-kyung kept his lips pressed tight, not taking his eyes off the scene. This wasn't the marksmanship of someone who had fired a gun once or twice. The muzzle was aimed precisely at the heart, and there wasn't a hint of hesitation.
Ja-kyung straightened his posture, pretending he hadn't seen anything. The back door opened, and when he got in, the smell of cigarettes and gunpowder mixed together, irritating his nose.
"I'm sorry. It was urgent business, so I couldn't put it off."
He was so calm, like someone only a few minutes late for an appointment. What should he say? Should he act surprised? Though he grew up in the underworld, Jang Ian was raised thoroughly under his grandfather's protection like an ordinary person. What would a normal 21-year-old young man say in this situation?
He couldn't find words and was just racking his brain when he belatedly noticed blood on Kang Il-hyun's right cheek.
"Why are you staring like that?"
"There's blood on your face..."
Kang Il-hyun rubbed his chin with his palm. After hesitating, Ja-kyung took out a handkerchief from his pants pocket. Wang Han had prepared it for him before he came to Korea. He said a young master raised well should have at least this much.
He had mocked him for it, never dreaming in his wildest dreams that it would come in handy. Indeed, the man born in the land of Confucius occasionally did wise things.
As he wiped the blood from his cheek with the handkerchief, Kang Il-hyun's eyes fixed on Ja-kyung. After neatly folding the bloodied handkerchief and putting it in his pocket, he smiled as respectfully as possible. There, that's done. It's clean now. Then he looked straight ahead.
His subordinates were loading a drum containing the corpse onto a truck. He could roughly guess where it would go. Buried somewhere deep where no one could find it. It could be the ground or the sea. Like his parents.
Still, that man was lucky. He wasn't thrown in while still alive.
Ja-kyung, who had been recalling old memories, felt a gaze on his cheek and turned his head. Kang Il-hyun's eyes were still fixed on his face. He was staring so intensely that his cheek felt like it was burning. The car hadn't started, and Ja-kyung found this situation extremely uncomfortable.
"Is there something you want to say to me...?"
The gaze on his face now moved downward. He felt like he was being assessed, and he unconsciously tensed. He had deliberately worn a shirt and pants with loose fit—had he noticed something? His gaze, which had moved downward, stopped at the bouquet of flowers resting on his knees.
"I think my choice was excellent."
"What?"
"It suits you. The red roses."
What the hell is this bastard saying? How should he take such a nausea-inducing line? Before he could even contemplate, Kang Il-hyun leaned back in his seat as if nothing had happened and looked ahead. Ja-kyung barely managed to control his expression from crumbling and straightened his posture.
The car was as quiet as silence itself. Damn it. He could at least turn on the radio. As the car started moving, the lush thickets appeared again. What he had passed without much thought when coming now felt like the man sitting beside him. He couldn't see through it at all.