Dae-yeon Development Chairman’s Office.
Dae-hun was still half-buried in the sofa, drinking coffee and reading a webtoon.
His legs were up on the table, and every time he swiped the screen, he snickered.
“Aren’t you going to work?”
The harsh words slipped out before I knew it.
I don’t know why, but whenever I see Seo Dae-hun lazing around like this, it makes my stomach twist.
I want to mess with him.
There’s no reason.
Without even taking his eyes off his phone, Dae-hun said,
“How many times do I have to tell you? This is my job. Stepping back at the right time, and giving the guys who do good work a pat on the ass.”
That pissed me off even more.
This bastard doesn’t take even one point of damage.
There’s no feedback at all.
It’s not even fun.
“Haa. As the major shareholder, I’m deeply disappointed.”
“Are you now? Then pull your money out and leave. I’ll pay you back in installments. Can we do a 200,000-year plan?”
I tried putting pressure on him as the major shareholder, but it didn’t work in the slightest.
I’d been exchanging pointless nonsense with Dae-hun since morning when Geun-su came in.
“Brother Dae-hun. Someone’s here to see you.”
Only then did Dae-hun take his eyes off the webtoon.
As if it were completely unexpected, he asked Geun-su,
“Me? Who?”
“He says he’s Cha Mun-seok of the Viper Gang. He runs an organization over in Incheon. He came saying he has something to tell you.”
“Tell him to come in.”
Dae-hun straightened up from his half-lying posture as he answered.
A moment later, the door opened, and a man with a bit of white in his hair entered.
He was a middle-aged man who looked much older than Dae-hun and me.
“Good morning. I’m Cha Mun-seok of the Viper Gang. I greet you, hyungnim.”
He greeted him in a loud voice that didn’t suit his age, then immediately bent at the waist in a ninety-degree bow.
I have no idea how hard Dae-hun must ride his guys on a daily basis for even an uncle of that age to be so excessively polite to him.
But then Cha Mun-seok saw me sitting beside Dae-hun, flinched in surprise, and said,
“I didn’t know Brother In-bae was here as well. Allow me to greet you again. I’m Cha Mun-seok of the Viper Gang.”
Just as he had to Dae-hun, he bent ninety degrees and greeted me too.
Hm… so Dae-hun isn’t the one riding the guys.
Sorry.
“What brings you all the way here this early in the morning?”
Dae-hun asked lightly.
“I came because there’s something I must tell you quietly. It concerns Brother In-bae.”
“Me? But have we met before? How do you know me?”
“I saw you during the Busan conquest last time.”
“Ah. The Busan conquest.”
“With the money you gave us then, we were truly able to survive. Thank you again, sincerely. Brother In-bae, you are the spiritual pillar of our Viper Gang.”
“It was nothing. Don’t worry about a bit of pocket money.”
“No, sir. Back then, things were so difficult that I was harboring dark thoughts, but thanks to you, hyungnim, it was as if both I and my organization were given new lives. Of course, I am always grateful for how much Brother Dae-hun has looked after us as well.”
Cha Mun-seok stood up once more and bowed with utmost courtesy.
“What did I do to help? You guys did well yourselves. You’re keeping the drugs out, right?”
Perhaps embarrassed by being praised, Dae-hun changed the subject.
“Yes. We patrol once a day and send the boys out to keep the streets in check.”
“You’re doing well.”
“Anyway, why did you come? You said it had to do with me.”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“What is it?”
“Yun Tae-gyeom of Taerim Group has given an order to eliminate Brother In-bae.”
“What?”
All three of us were shocked.
But the points that shocked us were all different.
Cha Mun-seok was shocked that such an order had been given,
Dae-hun was shocked that Yun Tae-gyeom had made such a move,
and I was shocked
by Yun Tae-gyeom’s pathetic intelligence network.
It seems he still hasn’t figured out who I am.
The only place he managed to reach out to was the Viper Gang?
What an utterly shabby manpower pool.
“So what exactly did Yun Tae-gyeom say?”
“It was simply an order to kill you.”
Hearing that almost made me laugh.
What a sloppy bastard.
If you give an order to kill someone, you should at least confirm the corpse.
You should tell them to bring back the head.
One way or another, you have to confirm the body.
A photo won’t do.
It can be manipulated however they like.
And just in case, you have to drive the final knife into the heart before it’s over—that’s how things work in this world.
The bastard doesn’t even have the basics down.
Cha Mun-seok carefully added,
“I took a slight read of the atmosphere, and it seemed like things inside Taerim were extremely bad. And the cause is Yun Tae-gyeom. Yun Tae-gyeom probably sees no way for himself to survive, so he seems to be lunging in, thinking he’ll take you down with him.”
“Is that so?”
After hearing Cha Mun-seok, I could roughly understand what was going on.
I’d leaked the story of the 100 trillion to the eldest son’s side, and it must have spread.
He probably went around bragging about it.
After all, his younger brother’s mistake would become his trophy.
“But hyungnim, did something happen between you and Taerim?”
Cha Mun-seok asked, curious, but truly cautious.
“Huh? Nothing much.”
I tried to just brush it off, but Dae-hun wasn’t the kind of guy who would let something like this pass.
“Kekeke, what do you mean, nothing much? There’s a woman In-bae has something going on with. But Taerim picked that woman as a marriage partner. So In-bae said, ‘Stay away from that woman. Then I’ll invest 100 trillion.’ Kekeke. But that bastard Yun Tae-gyeom refused. So he’s in the middle of wiping out Taerim. To stop the marriage.”
“Pardon?”
Cha Mun-seok’s eyes went round.
Shocked by the situation and the scale he had never imagined, he was left speechless.
100 trillion. Taerim.
It was not a combination one could easily picture.
Investing 100 trillion to stop a marriage,
and when that didn’t work, wiping out Taerim?
It made no sense.
But none of that mattered.
There were countless worlds Cha Mun-seok couldn’t understand.
There was only one thought in Cha Mun-seok’s head.
I did the right thing by coming.
The people in front of me aren’t ordinary gangsters.
They aren’t just gangsters doing a little well.
They have something far greater, something immense.
I must be loyal no matter what.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“Ah… yes… I’m surprised.”
When Dae-hun asked, Cha Mun-seok answered, his eyes still round.
“So keep treating In-bae well from now on too. If you’re loyal, you’ll be warm for the rest of your life. No, you don’t even need loyalty. Just do what you’re supposed to do. But if you betray us… it’s better we don’t even imagine that, right?”
“Of course. That will absolutely never happen.”
Cha Mun-seok spoke as if making a vow.
Why are these bastards only saying useless things?
They’re not asking what matters.
So I asked.
“But how do you guys know Taerim? Why did that order come to you?”
“A long time ago, when we were doing contracted muscle work, we helped Taerim a few times. They told us to go scare a few people, so we scared them and such, but at some point, they started thinking of us like killers. Inside Taerim, they call us the ‘Emergency Response Team.’ What did we care what they called us? They gave us holiday money and a bit of pocket money now and then, so we didn’t bother correcting them.”
“I see. Then what are you going to do about In-bae’s case? Are you going to kill In-bae?”
“Goodness, what are you saying? No, sir. Absolutely not. I came personally from the morning to report it because this order came in. You must never misunderstand.”
At Dae-hun’s playful question, Cha Mun-seok startled and made excuses.
“Hmm… then should we say In-bae is dead? And later, when In-bae appears with a ta-da, it’ll be so fun.”
Dae-hun said.
This bastard’s been reading so many webtoons that his imagination has improved.
I guess webtoons really are good for creativity.
But I don’t like it.
Rejected.
“No. I don’t want that bastard feeling good for even one second.”
At my words, Dae-hun looked at me as if surprised.
“Then?”
Dae-hun asked back.
“The Viper Gang all dies today.”
“Pardon?”
Cha Mun-seok froze in terror for a moment.
“Scott.”
“Yes, sir.”
When Scott appeared, Cha Mun-seok’s face turned deathly pale.
“Please spare me just this once. I will be absolutely loyal.”
Cha Mun-seok pleaded.
“These guys are the Viper Gang. Put them on the private jet and send them to the Philippines. Ten days? Make it twenty, nice and comfortably. By the time they come back, everything will be cleaned up.”
After thinking for a moment, Cha Mun-seok finally understood the situation.
“You guys tried to kill me and got taken out. So from today on, you can’t be reachable. Leave your phones behind. Go to the Philippines and have all the fun you want before coming back.”
“Thank you, hyungnim.”
Cha Mun-seok, who had died and come back to life in his imagination, thanked me.
“Scott. Make sure they’re taken good care of.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure they enjoy themselves properly.”
After hearing Scott’s words, I looked at Cha Mun-seok and said,
“Have fun. Let’s see each other when you get back.”
“Thank you, hyungnim.”
Just as he had when he came in, Cha Mun-seok bowed ninety degrees and left for Gimpo.
*********
“Vice President, we have a serious problem.”
The door opened, and the secretary spoke as he came in.
The moment he heard those words, Yun Tae-gyeom’s heart sank.
It felt like his heart had dropped all the way to the floor.
What is it now?
Something happens every single day.
The “shitty things” that bastard mentioned keep happening constantly, at all times, without warning or awareness.
There’s no notice, no context.
They’re not small matters either.
Every single one is a major incident.
Major incidents that would be difficult to handle even if one occurred in a year had been happening one after another these past few days.
This must be why people develop nervous breakdowns.
He felt like he was going insane.
“What is it this time!!!”
Yun Tae-gyeom shouted irritably.
“We can’t get in touch with the Emergency Response Team.”
“What?”
An ominous feeling filled Yun Tae-gyeom’s mind.
“They sent a message yesterday saying they were going to do the job, but after that, there’s been no contact, and we can’t reach them.”
“It can take some time when they’re doing a job.”
Yun Tae-gyeom tried hard to deceive himself.
But the secretary shook his head.
“Did you… did you track their location?”
“…Their last location was off the coast of Incheon.”
Yun Tae-gyeom squeezed his eyes shut.
Something had definitely gone wrong.
His position as vice president of Taerim had gone up in smoke.
His seat as heir had already been overturned.
Even if Taerim survived, Yun Tae-gyeom would be thoroughly excluded from the group.
He had already become “the idiot who kicked away 100 trillion.”
If packaged well, he might become a romanticist, but he was finished as a good manager.
That was why.
Even if he was driven out of the group, he wanted to kill that bastard, at least.
He wanted to deal with that bastard, at least, but even that had fallen apart.
But there was something more important than that.
He had to resolve this problem first.
“Enough. Don’t say anything. Keep it quiet. Quiet. I never did anything like this, and I never said anything like this. Got it?”
“…”
The secretary looked puzzled at Yun Tae-gyeom’s incomprehensible words.
What is he talking about?
“I know nothing. You just did it out of loyalty. Got it?”
“Pardon?”
Only then did the secretary grasp the situation.
Yun Tae-gyeom was dumping all responsibility for this onto him.
Suddenly, Yun Tae-gyeom’s expression changed.
The performance had begun.
“Secretary Kim, I didn’t think you were like that. So you were such a violent person. But to tell someone to kill a person? I never wanted anything like that. How could you do such a thing…”
“Vice President!!!”
The secretary’s face turned pale.
“Enough. I understand your loyalty, at least. But wrong is wrong. You may leave.”
Yun Tae-gyeom shook his head.
The secretary had no choice but to be led out by the security guards.
.
.
.
That evening, Yun Tae-gyeom headed not home, but to a wine bar.
It was hard to endure without alcohol.
The private room at the very end of the wine bar.
As he sat there, they brought in the liquor.
Once the drinks were set and the strong alcohol entered his body, only then did it feel like his blood was circulating a little.
Knock, knock, knock.
“That’s enough. Don’t let anyone in today.”
Yun Tae-gyeom spoke as if annoyed.
Despite Yun Tae-gyeom’s order not to come in, the door opened without permission.
The person who opened the door and entered was neither the madam nor a waiter.
“You… you?”
When Yun Tae-gyeom saw me, he jumped as if he had seen a ghost.
“What’s wrong? You look like someone you tried to kill came back alive. Don’t make that face. You’ll make me misunderstand.”
“…”
Soon, Yun Tae-gyeom regained his composure and asked while hiding his true feelings.
“What brings you here?”
“Ah! I thought about it and realized I’m not the kind of person who drinks for free, but last time, I drank for free and left. So I came to pay you back.”
"Don't worry. Just think of it as hospitality. Everyone does that much. It's no big deal."
Yun Taegyeom, who had been uncomfortable with me, was simply desperate to push me away.
I couldn't exactly go back like this, either.
"That's your opinion, but I have a philosophy in life, too. I don't take free drinks."
"No, I said it's fine."
"I said I don't want to. I'm paying you back."
I poured alcohol into the glass slowly and spoke.
"So you're going to buy me a drink?"
"Of course. Some dumbass turned down a hundred trillion won, so I've got plenty of money left. Heh heh."
"Urk."
"Drink up. Drink all the alcohol here. It might be your last drink, after all."
I pushed the glass toward Yun Taegyeom.
"What?"
"Why so surprised? Shouldn't you have expected at least this much?"
Yun Taegyeom was slightly taken aback by my calmness.
He seemed to realize only now that I knew everything.
"Hic."
The startled Yun Taegyeom hiccuped.
"The deal fell through because of you. Several people who didn't have to die ended up dead. Was it twelve?"
"Thirteen, sir."
Scott corrected from beside me.
"Thirteen innocent lives were lost, so it's only fair I take thirteen from you. With interest, that's fourteen. That's the only way the math works out. You like calculations, don't you?"
"What are you talking about? I have no idea what you mean."
Yun Taegyeom said in a trembling voice.
"You should take some acting classes. Or grow a spine. It's written all over your face—how can you pretend you don't know?"
"..."
"Shall I tell you something?"
"Wha... what?"
"None of the fourteen I'm taking are yours."
"What?"
"I'm saying none of the fourteen I'm taking are yours. You're going to live. As a cripple. A cripple with your tongue cut out, your eyes gouged, and your arms severed. In a state where you can't do anything, watch as your Taerim crumbles. Watch closely the result of that arrogant pride of yours. Ah. You won't have eyes, so. I suppose you can't see? You'll have to listen well."
I explained it to him gently.
About what would happen to Yun Taegyeom from now on.
Having heard my words, Yun Taegyeom trembled.
He fell to his knees immediately.
"Don't do this. Please, forgive me just this once. I was wrong."
I had tried to kill this man because I didn't want to kneel before him.
But as death drew near, Yun Taegyeom's knees buckled automatically, without anyone telling him to.
He ended up pleading desperately.
"I'm begging you like this. Please, spare me just once."
"What's with you. I'm not killing you. Instead, that older brother of yours you wanted dead so badly, your father, and who else was there? What does it matter. Anyway, we'll kill them for you. We only need to take fourteen, after all. Keep that in mind."
I patted his shoulder.
"Please. I beg you. Please spare me just once. Please, I beg you."
Yun Taegyeom was on his knees, begging desperately.
He pressed his forehead to the ground.
"Hey~ but why aren't you asking about Gwon Jua?"
"Huh?"
Was my question strange?
Yun Taegyeom let out a deflated sound.
"No. Isn't she the woman you gave up a hundred trillion won to protect? The woman you tried to have even if it meant giving up Taerim? But shouldn't you at least ask where she is?"
"......"
"You've lost interest already? For your feelings to cool this fast. Good thing I didn't send her away."
"..."
"So for the rest of your life, don't toy with people. Don't test others for no reason and live honestly. Scott, let's start the job."
"Here? It's too dark here; I might make a mistake."
Scott said, looking around.
"What, should I book an operating room for you?"
"I'd appreciate that."
Cheeky bastard.
"A guy who calls himself a pro. Why are you so picky about the location."
"It's because I'm trying to do it cleanly. That's what being a professional is."
"Forget it. Just do it."
"Shall we take him to the workshop?"
After thinking for a moment, I felt the workshop would be better.
"Should we? It would be better there, right? Easier to clean up after?"
"That's correct."
"Then let's go."
We knocked Yun Taegyeom unconscious and moved him by car.
.
.
.
Yun Taegyeom came to his senses.
He had had a nightmare.
In the dream, they had cut off his hand without anesthesia.
Blood had splattered, and he had screamed.
He didn't know how many times he had passed out and woken up from the pain.
It was a relief that it had been a dream.
He tried to move the hand that had been cut off in the dream, but the sensation was strange.
It was unfamiliar.
It felt as though something that should be there was missing.
He jerked his eyes open and looked at his hand.
Only then did he feel that the world was dark.
The world was pitch black.
He couldn't see anything.
Could it be that last night's nightmare hadn't been a nightmare?
Could it be reality?
He wanted to scream, but his pronunciation was strange.
He tried to say something, but his words kept coming out garbled.
He couldn't feel his tongue.
He couldn't even speak.
Then a radio broadcast came on.
"This is news that the Taerim Group family has died in a traffic accident. Early this morning near the Chilgok logistics interchange on the Gyeongbu Expressway, a twenty-four-ton truck, a trailer, and a passenger car collided while traveling toward Seoul. As a result, the entire Taerim family riding in the passenger car died at the scene."
Yun Taegyeom's body collapsed upon hearing that news.
Tears flowed from unseeing eyes.
And he wailed with a mouth that could not speak.
He thrashed about, but no one reacted.
.
.
.
"Should I read it like this?"
"Yeah. You did well. Very good."
"But is this real?"
"What?"
"That the Taerim people got into a traffic accident."
"No. I recorded it because I needed it for a piece."
"Right? You startled me."
"Here's your pay."
When I held out the money, the part-timer accepted it gladly.
"Thank you. If you have something like this again, please call me."
"Sure. Sure, go on in."
The aspiring announcer left.
On the spot where he had been lay a script about the Taerim Group traffic accident.
No one at Taerim Group had died.
It was merely a play to deceive Yun Taegyeom.
Live the rest of your life in atonement and repentance.
Live in the agony that your entire family died because of you.
That is the punishment you will receive.
Unable to see, unable to speak,
listen only to the stories we tell you, and live knowing only what we allow you to know.
Think only of what we permit.
That is the true punishment I give you.