He grew up well.
Seeing how splendidly he had grown, I felt proud myself.
It made me happy, as if he had achieved that precious dream he had nurtured since high school.
Just how much effort had he put in to become a gangster?
He paid me to be his errand boy,
cursed at our classmates and bullied them.
Given his shy personality, leading a crew around,
approaching strangers and shaking them down for money couldn’t have been easy.
Yet he did all those difficult things.
Seeing that gallant, thug-like appearance of his now,
I was moved, thinking it was the result of enduring and withstanding such a grueling process.
I suppose Yang Jeong-won is quite the hard worker too.
It couldn’t have been easy, yet he eventually did it.
That consistency seems to have made him who he is today.
I felt like applauding him.
Unfortunately, he stopped coming to school around graduation, so I had wondered what he was up to; seeing him here like this truly delighted me.
.
.
.
The meeting between the bosses began.
Dae-hoon asked me to come with him to the meeting hall, but I refused.
Yang Jeong-won was more urgent for me.
He must have tagged along nervously as a hidden boss, so I figured he’d be somewhere around here.
I went to the outdoor smoking area on the first floor to find Yang Jeong-won.
Just then, my eyes met his.
Yang Jeong-won flicked his fingers, calling me over.
Oh~ As expected.
He hasn’t changed one bit.
I reacted to that finger and quickly ran over.
I haven’t changed either.
“Hey! You fucking piece of shit, I’m so goddamn happy to see you.”
Yang Jeong-won greeted me with delight.
I was happy to see him too.
But perhaps because the joy was too great, the words wouldn’t come out.
“So it’s you? The guy who stabbed my dad?”
“Huh?”
Stab? What do you mean, stab?
Someone might misunderstand if they heard that.
I just called for help, that’s all.
Your dad merely paid the penalty for the crimes he committed himself.
“Do you know how hard I looked for you? There isn’t a place I didn’t go to find you.”
“Why did you go around looking? You could’ve just called.”
“Ha~ This bastard knows how to play with words now. Anyway, now that I’ve found you, consider yourself dead.”
Hearing Yang Jeong-won’s threatening words, I felt at ease.
Because he seemed exactly the same.
He didn’t seem to have grown an inch since high school; it was like I had gone back to those days.
He felt familiar, yet it was a shame that he seemed exactly the same.
He could have improved a bit more.
That part was regrettable.
Yang Jeong-won hadn’t grown at all.
He worked so hard in high school to become a gangster,
yet it seemed he put in no effort whatsoever after becoming one.
That’s not how you threaten someone.
It’s so cliché.
It’s not scary at all.
It feels like he’s asking if I’ve eaten.
“Isn’t it a bit of a waste to kill me? I even bought a house. I haven’t even moved in yet.”
“Haha. This bastard’s gotten even more of a piece of shit since I last saw him? Don’t worry. I’ll fix that habit of yours. I’ll beat you to my heart’s content, with interest for all the hits I missed.”
Yang Jeong-won raised his fist.
This bastard still hasn’t fixed his habit of opening his shoulder before throwing a punch.
The one who needs fixing isn’t me—it’s Yang Jeong-won.
Yang Jeong-won threw a punch at me with all his might,
but that fist didn’t reach me.
Scott, who was beside me, stretched out his arm and blocked it, snagging Yang Jeong-won’s fist.
Scott glared at Yang Jeong-won and said,
“Don’t do that.”
Oh~ Scott.
He looked quite charismatic.
I never thought Scott would step in here.
I thought he’d be groaning from a hangover,
or ordering instant noodles on the plane.
I didn’t think he’d pull his weight here, but as expected, teaching him was worth it.
Of course, even if Scott hadn’t stepped in, that punch wouldn’t have hit me.
That sluggish punch is harder to get hit by than to dodge.
Come to think of it, Yang Jeong-won must have forgotten the beating I gave him before he graduated high school.
Should I jog his memory?
That’s probably the right thing for him too, isn’t it?
But before I could step forward, Yang Jeong-won suddenly went ballistic at Scott.
“Hey! Who the hell are you? What gives a foreign bastard the right to butt in here? Huh? Get lost.”
Yang Jeong-won threw a punch at Scott.
Scott glanced at me once and simply dodged.
He could have easily subdued someone like Yang Jeong-won,
but perhaps not wanting to cause trouble, he merely dodged Yang Jeong-won’s sluggish punches.
“If you’re just gonna run around panting, why’d you butt in? You scared? Come at me!!”
Yang Jeong-won shouted, panting for breath.
But Scott showed no reaction.
In the meantime, the gang members who had been smoking and waiting for the meeting to end began to gather around.
They watched with amusement, as if some entertaining spectacle had begun—Yang Jeong-won throwing punches while Scott dodged.
Someone was filming with a smartphone.
Yang Jeong-won was punching with all his might, but Scott just kept dodging.
The surrounding crowd enjoying the spectacle only made Yang Jeong-won angrier.
On top of that, the one who had been his errand boy his whole life,
Gong In-bae—who had ruined his family—was right in front of him.
But he couldn’t even touch a hair on Gong In-bae’s head.
His father had been arrested right before he graduated high school, and he had fled Seoul like he was running away.
The thought that he couldn’t even take revenge on Gong In-bae, the root cause, was driving Yang Jeong-won insane.
He began throwing whatever was in sight at Scott.
Chairs, trash cans, cans.
Without discrimination, he threw anything his eyes could see at Scott.
Apparently, he learned well from his gangster father.
It was a much more effective attack than his sluggish punches.
But Scott wasn’t the type to fall for such clumsy attacks.
Hiding behind a pillar, he easily avoided Yang Jeong-won’s thrown assaults.
Whether because he was truly furious, Yang Jeong-won started taking off his clothes.
I don’t know why he was stripping to fight, but he took off his shirt.
When he took it off, flashy tattoos appeared.
His upper body was so densely covered in tattoos that not a single empty spot was visible.
To become an excellent gangster, he should have learned intimidation and fighting rather than getting tattoos; he took the wrong path.
It’s not like having some tattoos makes you a gangster.
What a shame.
I wanted to tell Yang Jeong-won.
I wanted to teach him the proper path of a gangster.
If he followed Sandro around, could he learn intimidation?
If he followed Scott around, could he learn how to fight?
Then could he become a proper gangster?
I grew curious.
Just then, the hotel security team stormed in.
Glancing at the smoking area that had been reduced to shambles, one spoke with an annoyed expression.
“You can’t do this here. Please return.”
“Who the hell are you? Fuck off. Unless you want to die.”
Yang Jeong-won spoke with a murderous look in his eyes.
But the security guards didn’t seem concerned at all.
“Please leave.”
Yang Jeong-won, burning with irritation and anger and having lost his reason, was just about to throw a punch at the security team when a shout rang out.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
When I turned around, it was Choi Moo-young, the boss of the Yeongdo Faction to which Yang Jeong-won belonged.
Choi Moo-young strode unhesitatingly toward Yang Jeong-won.
Then he slapped him hard.
*Thwack!*
It was a powerful slap, enough to make Yang Jeong-won’s body sway.
But instead of staggering, Yang Jeong-won straightened his posture and stood at attention.
“Do you know what kind of place this is? And you come here making such a disgraceful scene?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Hurry up and put your clothes on and straighten yourself. And you—I’ll deal with you later.”
“Yes, sir.”
Choi Moo-young, boss of the Yeongdo Faction, glanced at me and Scott, then walked over to Seo Dae-hoon to offer an apology.
“I’m sorry about this. I failed to educate my boys properly. I’ll educate them separately. Let’s wrap up today’s matter here.”
But Seo Dae-hoon said nothing.
He was simply looking at me.
With eyes full of anger.
Why?
I didn’t get hit.
I just met a high school classmate after a long time and exchanged a few curses, that’s all.
I’m telling the truth.
“Brother. For the Yeongdo Faction, does everything end if they hit someone and toss out a casual apology, saying let’s wrap it up?”
“What?”
“Do you even know what situation we’re in right now?”
“Brother, aren’t you taking this too far? Whatever the situation, we apologize to each other and end it cleanly. Why are you trying to blow this up? I already apologized!”
Choi Moo-young of the Yeongdo Faction couldn’t bow his head here either.
This was a gathering of bosses from Seoul, the capital region, Busan, and Gyeongsang-do for a peace treaty.
The bosses and all the underlings beneath them were gathered.
He couldn’t bow his head to a much younger brother in a place where everyone in the industry was gathered.
No matter how much they were an organization that controlled Seoul and Jeolla-do.
In times like this, he had no choice but to come on stronger.
“Brother. Today is supposed to be a good day. Didn’t we agree not to fight each other? How can you act so rudely?”
“Rudely? I called you Brother out of courtesy, and now you think you’re really my elder brother? Hey, you fucker. Are you kidding me? You think this situation can be smoothed over with a few words?”
“What? What situation? The kids just scuffled a bit. What’s the big deal?”
“Kids scuffling?”
“Aren’t you the ones deliberately causing a disturbance under the guise of a peace treaty? You took Seoul, and now you want Busan too, so you’re pulling a cheap trick. You cowardly bastards.”
“If you’re really stupid, you should at least watch your mouth. Haven’t you heard that if you stay still, you’ll at least end up average? Why are you flapping your gums and blowing this up?”
“What did I do?”
“That person your organization’s retarded bastard touched. Our organization’s supreme boss.”
“What?”
“I’ve always told you. I’m just the front man. I told you our boss is separate. Our boss came out to watch for the first time in a while, and your guy somehow picks a fight with him. And now you’re saying it’s just kids scuffling so let’s overlook it? What if our youngest had touched you? If I came and said let’s just let it slide, would you? Is a single sorry enough? What kind of nonsensical bullshit are you spouting?”
“T-that guy is the boss of the Daehoon Faction? You’re the one who made it! Seo Dae-hoon!”
“Is it the Yeongdo Faction because your name is Yeongdo? What does a name matter? A boss is a boss.”
“Then you should have told me. I didn’t know.”
“What kind of fresh bullshit is that? So you’re saying it’s fine to pick fights as long as it’s not the boss? That you can’t touch the boss, but everyone else is fair game?”
“No. That’s not it…”
“Go kneel down and apologize formally, and hand over the one who started the trouble. We’ll chew him up and spit him out ourselves.”
From Choi Moo-young’s standpoint, these were unacceptable conditions.
He could hand Yang Jeong-won over to the other side a hundred times over,
but he couldn’t kneel down in front of someone he’d just met, with members of organizations from all over the country watching.
“Seo Dae-hoon. That’s enough. There’s a limit to my patience.”
“This brother really has no tact. Who’s the one holding back right now? Hurry up and kneel.”
“And if I don’t?”
“If you’re curious, try it. See what happens.”
Choi Moo-young saw Seo Dae-hoon’s icy gaze.
But he couldn’t kneel here.
It would be a true disgrace.
It would remain forever.
Choi Moo-young couldn’t yield here either.
Now, it was a battle of pride.
“Don’t push this too far. Cross the line any further, and I won’t stay still either.”
“What are you going to do if you can’t stay still?”
“Curious? Try it. See what happens.”
“Hahaha. Interesting. But can you handle it?”
Choi Moo-young threw Seo Dae-hoon’s own words back at him.
“Why so tense? Everyone bows and scrapes before you, so you’re not afraid of anything, right? You took Seoul and now you think the world is yours? That lasts but a moment.”
“You talk too damn much. If you want to lecture someone, lecture your troublemaking brats. So you can’t apologize?”
“Of course I can’t. We did nothing wrong.”
“Really? Then I’ll have to create a wrongdoing.”
“What?”
“Geun-su!!!”
“Yes, Brother.”
Dae-hoon called out for Geun-su in a loud voice, and Geun-su stood beside him.
“Gather the boys. Busan must be bored. Let’s go give them a good time.”
“Understood, Brother.”
Geun-su answered Dae-hoon’s order immediately.
He didn’t ask for a reason or a method.
When an order is given, he follows.
Geun-su raised his phone and disappeared.
Choi Muyeong could feel that the mood was truly turning ugly.
That Jeong Geunsu was famous as a romantic gangster.
Any order his boss gave him, he would carry out even if his skull got cracked open.
If he didn’t stop this here, a real war might break out.
Anxiety wrapped around his entire body.
“L-little brother. That’s not it. We can settle this with a conversation…”
“Do you know what you did wrong, hyungnim?”
“Huh? Wrong? Not educating my boys properly?”
“No. Being weak. In this world, being weak is what you did wrong. That’s the greatest sin on this side.”
“What?”
“The reason doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what I did or what you did. If I’m strong, then I’m right, and if you’re weak, then you’re wrong. So at times like this, you’re supposed to have the sense to crawl on your own, but you didn’t know shit and held out, acted defiant—that’s what you did wrong. You get it now?”
“No. Still. There’s a hierarchy on this side…”
“Then die along with that hierarchy.”
“W-wait a second.”
“Still, there is one thing I’m grateful for.”
“Huh?”
“We were already worried because, after taking over Seoul and growing so fast, the boys weren’t coming together properly. But thanks to this chance, they’ll unite as one. They say an external enemy is the best at times like this, right? As we advance into Busan, our Daehun faction will become even tighter.”
“You bastard, you did this on purpose.”
“What do you mean, on purpose? Your bastard was the one who caused the trouble.”
“Even so, this is too much. Calling it a war over a little scuffle between the boys?”
“You really have no sense. This isn’t a kids’ fight anymore. It’s become a fight between adults. Now either you or I, one of us has to fall. That’s the situation now. So all you had to do earlier was go over there and kneel once, but you just had to make this bigger.”
“No…”
“Enough. When we step into Busan, I’m going to tell the boys from the Yeongdo faction. That you’re all dying because your boss ran his mouth the wrong way. I’ll tell them to blame their boss.”
“……”
“And how clueless does that bastard have to be to see someone walking around with bodyguards behind them and still mess with that person? Couldn’t he tell at a glance that they were important? Why pick a fight? Is he an idiot?”
Seo Daehun spoke while pointing at Yang Jeongwon.
“That’s…”
“You’re talking too much. Boys.”
“Yes, hyungnim.”
“Escort hyungnim here to somewhere quiet and secluded. Making this much noise here doesn’t seem polite. Clean up the mess here too.”
“Understood, hyungnim.”
The Daehun faction members mercilessly dragged Choi Muyeong away.
The bosses of the other organizations were watching it happen as well.
With expressions of shock.
Over those expressions, Seo Daehun threw out a single line.
“Anyone want to come to Busan with me?”