2. You’re the Ones Who Should Watch Yourselves.
Patrick’s consciousness, which had been sinking endlessly into a distant abyss surrounded by pitch-black darkness, returned amidst noisy construction sounds. The clamor of an excavator crunching through asphalt—perhaps repaving the road—rang loudly in his ears.
Squinting his eyes open, his brow furrowed deeply at the bright fluorescent light, he saw a white ceiling with yellowed, faded patches here and there.
“Where is this…?”
Patrick raised his upper body with effort and looked around.
Inside a cramped room that couldn’t be more than a little over two pyeong. All it contained was an assembly clothes rack with garments hanging on it and a shabby, worn-out floor desk; there wasn’t a single decent piece of furniture to be found. If he lay down on the blanket spread out in the middle, his feet would touch the door.
“What the hell.”
Patrick clutched his head as the headache grew increasingly severe.
He had clearly been on a mission in Singapore.
Waking up to find himself not in a hospital but in a cramped room that belonged to who-knows-who made absolutely no sense.
“Right. I was heading to the marina to board a yacht…”
Patrick, groping through his memories, suddenly contorted his face into a vicious expression.
The dump truck collision that had happened just before he lost consciousness, and the man with a St. Michael’s tattoo on the back of his hand who had appeared at the scene as if he’d been waiting.
Patrick gritted his teeth.
He could still almost smell the thick scent of blood lingering at the tip of his nose.
The spine-chilling sensation of being drenched from head to toe in the blood of his colleagues, Amber and Sing—whom Patrick had considered family—came flooding back.
Dozens of glass shards embedded in Amber’s pale neck.
The grotesque angle of her broken arm.
Sing had been in the worst possible spot, closest to the dump truck, so every bone in his body must have been crushed. No amount of thick muscle could stop a charging truck.
“It’d be hard to expect them to be alive.”
The moment Patrick muttered with a gloomy face, his head suddenly hurt as if it would split open.
“Ugh!”
Someone’s memories crashed over him like waves.
Over the memories of his life as Patrick, another person’s memories were being superimposed.
“Argh! Damn it. Kuh…”
Patrick groaned, his face against the floor.
It was an agony so intense that even forced torture couldn’t possibly hurt more than this.
“Haagh!”
When he was rolling his eyes back, nearly passing out, the pain vanished like a lie. Soaked in sweat and gasping for breath, Patrick trembled, his face a mask of disbelief.
“What is this…”
Choe Minseong.
The owner of this body was not Patrick.
He was a twenty-six-year-old young man named Choe Minseong.
For some reason, Patrick could naturally recall this fact in his head, and he also realized that he had entered another person’s body.
Barely raising his staggering body, Patrick hurriedly looked for a mirror. Rummaging through the desk, he checked his face with a small handheld mirror, and his eyes went wide.
Reflected in the mirror was not Patrick but the face of an unfamiliar man who looked exhausted. Eyes that looked dead-dark, as if he hadn’t slept for days. His coarse skin and unkempt hair grown out enough to poke his eyes, and above all, a heavy sense of melancholy draped over his entire face. If there was one thing fortunate, perhaps it was that his overall physical ability didn’t look bad, maybe because he had exercised.
“Choe Minseong. Twenty-six this year… Parents both alive, a man who had lived very ordinarily until now in a family with one son and one daughter.”
Patrick falteringly recalled the memories that had been forcibly superimposed on his mind.
Choe Minseong’s life had begun to go awry around his final year of university. The cause was joining a multi-level marketing company at the suggestion of a senior he barely knew. To boost his performance, he had taken out multiple credit cards to engage in card kiting to buy products, accumulating over ten million won in debt, and by then, his relationships with friends had soured as well. Once he fell into debt, being branded a credit delinquent had happened in an instant.
Because Minseong had been a diligent model student until then, the impatience of having to somehow resolve this situation gnawed at his heart even more.
And Minseong made yet another worst possible choice.
Believing only his friend’s words that it would yield jackpot returns without fail, he had pooled everything including his soul to invest in shitcoins. Of course, those shitcoins into which he had poured his money met their end in delisting.
It was this easy for a young man’s life to fall completely into the abyss.
“So that’s how he ended up like this.”
Patrick turned his head to the side and looked down at the pill pack on the floor and a few remaining sleeping pills.
Having taken out private loans and even lost the savings his older sister had set aside for her wedding fund, Minseong had attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills in despair. Unable to purchase many sleeping pills from one place, he had visited over twenty pharmacies to get the drugs and downed them with soju.
“No wonder he had the face of someone who had already lived his entire life.”
Patrick clicked his tongue briefly at his reflection in the mirror.
“You fool.”
Regardless of the circumstances, taking one’s own life was a foolish act. While cursing him as a pathetic bastard inwardly, he also felt conflicted. Perhaps because he had fully inherited Minseong’s memories, he felt pity for how cornered Minseong had been to make such an extreme choice.
“Yeah. This kid must have really wanted to die.”
Seeing no way out no matter how he looked at it, no wonder he had done such a thing. He was a pathetic and foolish human, but thanks to this body, Patrick could live again. He still couldn’t understand how on earth he had ended up in Minseong’s body, though.
Bam! Bam!
Just then, someone pounded heavily on the gosiwon room door.
“Hey! We know you’re in there.”
“You borrowed money, so you gotta pay it back!”
As they pounded violently as if they would break the door down any moment and made a commotion, Patrick—no, Minseong—furrowed his brow and raised his body.
“Are they thinking of breaking down the door?”
Even though they had no intention of paying for the damage.
The owner of this body was a pauper without a single thousand-won bill to his name. Debt collection is debt collection, but was there really any need to do that to a gosiwon door?
Minseong flung the door open and glared.
Apparently not expecting the door to suddenly swing open wide, two guys stood there awkwardly with their fists still raised. One was wearing a floral-pattern shirt with a thick gold necklace, and the other sported a belt with a large luxury logo and a leather handbag tucked under his arm.
Anyone could tell they were loan sharks.
Both had thick guts spilling out, and tattoos peeked out from under their short sleeves to the extent that one might wonder if they had gotten couple tattoos at the same parlor.
“So you finally came out.”
Baek Dongseok, the one with the gold necklace, narrowed his eyes and looked at Minseong.
They were guys who came by frequently to torment him, so Minseong knew their faces well.
“What do you want?”
The original owner of the body would tremble just seeing these two, but Minseong had no need for that. Naturally, since only the body was the same while the soul inside was completely different.
When Minseong cast them a derisive glance, Choe Seongyeol, the one with a shaved head, roared.
“Look at this punk? He won’t lower his eyes. I’ll smash his damn skull in!”
He raised one hand threateningly as if he would really hit him.
“Hey. Stay put.”
Baek Dongseok naturally restrained Choe Seongyeol and turned to Minseong.
“Why do you think we’re here? The money didn’t come in on the deposit date, so we came out on this hot day, didn’t we?”
“Ah.”
Recalling Minseong’s memory that the loan interest was two months overdue, he clicked his tongue.
“Guess you remembered now?”
Baek Dongseok put on a fishy smile.
“Hah…”
He had really done everything.
Minseong swept his hair up in annoyance and let out a sigh. Then he looked at the two with frigidly cold eyes and opened his mouth.
“First of all, if we make noise here, we’ll bother other people, so let’s talk outside. Hey. Move aside.”
Minseong tapped Choe Seongyeol, who was blocking his way, and stepped outside, walking down the corridor with a shuffle.
“Uh, uhh?”
Pushed back without realizing it, Choe Seongyeol belatedly scrunched up his face and shouted.
“This bastard’s crazy!”
Baek Dongseok beside him also glared viciously at Minseong’s back.
The place Minseong led the two was an empty lot next to the gosiwon where houses had been demolished to build villas.
“So, you came to collect money. That’s it, right?”
“Did you eat some spoiled food somewhere? A few blows will knock some sense into you.”
“You thugs sure talk a lot.”
When Minseong replied with a nonchalant expression, the two’s reactions were a sight to behold.
“Has he lost his mind trying to die!”
Choe Seongyeol flew into a rage and looked ready to throw a punch at any moment, and Baek Dongseok also frowned, looking annoyed.
“There’s a limit to my patience, so watch yourself.”
They couldn’t figure out what he was relying on to act so arrogantly. From the beginning, it was the first time Minseong had ever looked them straight in the eye. Wasn’t he the guy who always walked around with his head bowed deeply and trembled at the slightest threat? But now he was acting cocky with a relaxed demeanor as if he had become a different person overnight; it was simply flabbergasting.
“You’re the ones who should watch yourselves.”
“….”
“I borrowed five million, yet I’ve already paid back over ten million. You leeches keep clinging on and sucking my blood—do I really need to treat you like human beings? Don’t you think?”
Minseong crossed his arms and put on a stern expression, standing ramrod straight.
“Come to think of it, since you took ten percent in advance interest, the borrowed amount wasn’t even five million. Anyway, I’m in a very confused state of mind right now, so don’t piss me off and just leave.”
Choe Seongyeol, who had been listening to Minseong with his mouth agape at this nonsense, spoke with a face so red it couldn’t possibly get any redder.
“He’s completely lost his mind, I see. They say the whip is the cure for a madman—if I beat him like a dog, he’ll come to his senses.”
Choe Seongyeol raised his large fist, whirled his shoulder around, and approached.
This time, Baek Dongseok didn’t stop him and just left him be.
“I’m telling you to just leave. Don’t do something you’ll regret.”
His approach with a scowl was very intimidating, but Minseong remained composed.
Although this wasn’t his original body, to Minseong—who had trained in all sorts of special operations and killing techniques—these two thugs were no threat whatsoever. Rather, Minseong thought this was for the best. His head was complicated as it was; he thought moving his body a bit might clear his mood.
“Bastard. You scared now? Why don’t you keep flapping your gums like before?”
Simultaneously with his words, Choe Seongyeol swung his fist.
As the fist flew toward his face, Minseong settled into a stance and tried to step back to evade.
Strangely, Choe Seongyeol’s movements suddenly appeared slow.
“Huh?”
Was he looking down on Minseong and moving slowly?
Surprised by the sudden situation, Minseong’s eyes went wide.
Choe Seongyeol, who had been about to strike with his fist, was moving languidly as if in slow motion.
Moreover, looking around, not just Choe Seongyeol but everything except himself had slowed down as if by magic.
Even a bird flying in the sky was suspended in midair.
No, in reality, it was merely flapping its wings very slowly.
‘What the hell is this now?’
The moment the bewildered Minseong hesitated at the unexpected phenomenon, time returned to normal like a lie.
Thwack!
As Choe Seongyeol’s fist struck his face, he felt hot blood flow from his nose.
“Kuh.”
From the blunt impact, Minseong collapsed onto the dirt ground.
“Bastard. Did seeing us often make you think we’re pushovers?”
As he spewed curses and tried to kick him in the side with his shoe, Minseong quickly grabbed Choe Seongyeol’s foot and pushed it away.
Then he raised himself, wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand, and spoke.
“Phew. That hurts. It’s been a while since I took a hit like this.”
“Bullshit.”
Grabbing both the arm and collar of the charging Choe Seongyeol, Minseong lifted him straight upside down and slammed him headfirst into the dirt ground.
Boom!
“Aaack!”
Baek Dongseok, who had been watching leisurely, expecting Choe Seongyeol to win, widened his eyes at the unexpected development.
“Why you…!”
Dodging the ferocious punch thrown by Baek Dongseok as he rushed in, Minseong twisted his upper body to the side.
Then he drove his fist with all his might into the opening in the opponent’s side, and bringing his weight down, struck Baek Dongseok’s distorted face with his right elbow.
Crack!
“Kuhk.”
With the sound of something shattering, the bloodied Baek Dongseok clutched his broken nose with both hands and sank to the ground.
“Die!”
When he turned his head, Choe Seongyeol—his eyes rolled back—charged at him holding a jackknife with a gleaming sharp blade that he had pulled out from who knows where.
Minseong didn’t panic at all; he twisted his body and evaded the knife his opponent thrust at him.
Then he grabbed the arm holding the jackknife and snapped it to the side.
“Kuaaah!”
In terrible agony, Choe Seongyeol dropped the jackknife to the ground and let out a scream.
When Minseong struck his solar plexus with a fist, Choe Seongyeol gaped with a gasping sound and fell to his knees.
Expressionlessly, Minseong grabbed Choe Seongyeol’s head and kneed him upward.
Thud!
“Uuuuugh.”
With a gurgling sound, Choe Seongyeol rolled his eyes back and collapsed weakly to the side.
Having completely taken down two men larger than himself in an instant, Minseong regulated his rough breathing.
‘To think just moving this much would leave me out of breath.’
While he had basic physicality, it wasn’t a usable body, perhaps due to lack of recent exercise.
Minseong let out a long breath with a huff and kicked the fallen Choe Seongyeol once more.
“You shouldn’t wave a knife around.”
He wanted to beat them more, but his muscles were already sore from suddenly using his body so intensely.
Groaning, Minseong looked down at the two sprawled-out men and spoke.
“You’ve already taken twice as much money as the principal, so we’re settled. Don’t ever come find me again.”
“Kuugh…”
“If I see you again, it won’t end like this.”
Leaving behind a cold warning, Minseong left the empty lot.