The Dogang Faction’s hideout with the power cut off was also like an abandoned underground bunker. This place, sculpted from rock and iron and decorated with red lanterns and golden Guanyin statues, was Korea, but also not Korea.
The great unification ground of the black world that began with blood and power, the Central Cartel. This place, which was once one of the exchange sites for organizations belonging to the Cartel, kept only its outdated oriental sensibilities along with stale dust, covering up its glamorous past.
Jeongcheol stared blankly at the red lantern with no electricity. The lotus flower carved on the lantern seemed to have lost its vitality and withered. He pressed his hand against the glass window to support his swaying body. In a little while, he would finally stand before hundreds of organization members. At the same time, he planned to grasp the special power authorized by the Cartel in the name of the Dogang Faction.
“Heuheuheuheu….”
Jeongcheol burst into laughter while raising his eyebrows enough to wrinkle his forehead. After laughing emptily for a while, Jeongcheol tried to straighten his bent waist but instead swayed the opposite way and twisted his ankle.
“Maybe I’ll change the name to the Red Ant Faction.”
The hundreds of organization members visible below the glass window wandering aimlessly in one space looked exactly like a swarm of ants. Jeongcheol, who finished drinking the rest of the whiskey he was holding, put his hand on the glass window and pressed his forehead against it hard enough to make a thud sound.
“Bug bastards. Huh? How many are those all together?”
When he raised his hand, a heavy-looking gold watch glittered. Jeongcheol drew a virtual border on the glass window to cage the organization members who repeatedly gathered and scattered. Xiao, who was watching this from behind, shook her head.
“He’s drunk.”
She was sitting on a sofa spread with leopard-print fur. The woman in a dark green cheongsam outfit with long hair braided into two strands was a person with skin so pale it was transparent. Because of her small face, she sometimes felt like she wasn’t human.
“Should I knock him out?”
As if displeased with Jeongcheol’s attitude, behind Xiao fanning a black fan, a huge wall moved.
“Never mind. Leave him be.”
At Xiao’s single head gesture, the wall returned to its place. Perhaps because of his height over two meters and black clothing, it looked exactly like a wall moving.
Although the conversation between the two continued entirely in Cantonese, anyone could tell that the gaze toward Jeongcheol was cold. Two pairs of eyes filled with murderous intent shone in the darkness.
The subordinates Jeongcheol recently appointed as executive-level placed their hands at their waists with tense eyes. Xiao, who couldn’t not know this, snorted under her fan. She stood up from her seat, folding her fan with a snap as if for them to hear. With movements as light and fluttering as a feather, she approached Jeongcheol and shouted in fairly skilled Korean.
“You! How long are you going to stay drunk?!”
Jeongcheol kept nodding and leaned his body against the glass window. His emerald shirt and white dress pants were hopelessly wrinkled. As he tried to lay his body on the floor as is, Xiao couldn’t hold back her temper and kicked Jeongcheol’s leg hard with her high heel.
“Get up!”
“Kkeung…. Ah, can’t do it today? Tell them we’re not doing it. Tell them all to get lost.”
“Are you crazy? Have you finally gone crazy?”
Not knowing any Korean curse words, she was fuming when the soundproof door opened and a familiar face came in. He was Jeongcheol’s subordinate who suffered from dwarfism and whose nickname was General. He ran in with his characteristic blank face and quickly scanned the surroundings.
“General? Your boss is here?”
Xiao, who folded her arms, stepped aside while covering her mouth with her fan. It was a movement as smooth and haughty as a cat. Between the cheongsam hem that emphasized her figure, the line of her long, sleek legs was subtly revealed. Jeongcheol’s subordinates in the room quickly scanned Xiao’s body line and turned their eyes away. Not knowing that those gazes would become blades slitting their throats.
“Ah, you’re there?”
When a plain voice that didn’t match the atmosphere was heard, Xiao smiled with her eyes while covering her lips with her fan. Knowing that anyone would become obedient enough to give their liver and gall bladder with just one smile, Xiao smiled out of habit. However, the man with a short, stocky body called General stared at Xiao blankly then just smiled back awkwardly.
Snap—!
When the desired reaction didn’t come out, Xiao glared sharply. In the sharp atmosphere, General hastily erased his smile and lowered his gaze to his collapsed boss.
“Ah, aigoo… hyung-nim….”
Jeongcheol seemed to be seriously going to sleep, rubbing his white pants on the floor full of mold and dust. General grabbed his shoulder, turned him, and gently patted his cheeks.
“Hyung-nim! Jeongcheol hyung-nim!”
“Aissi… I said not today…. I can’t do it….”
Looking down at Jeongcheol waving his hand with slurred speech, Xiao rolled her eyes wide in absurdity. She knew he was short-sighted, but she didn’t know he’d act like this even on an important day like today. She glared at General as if to devour him with her arms folded.
“Hurry up and wake him!?”
“Sholrasholra what are you saying…. Haha…. Ah, yes…. Aissiteru…. Haha.”
General muttered in a barely audible voice, unable to even look back at Xiao shouting in Cantonese. Just watching out for Xiao and the guard standing behind her made his heart race urgently to death, but his hyung-nim showed no sign of opening his eyes. General knocked on Jeongcheol’s cheek a bit harder.
“Please get up, hyung-nim! This is serious!”
“Hey you bastard. I told you not to call me hyung-nim, heum-nya… uuk!”
Smack—!
Being slapped seemed to make conversation a bit more possible. General immediately struck Jeongcheol’s right cheek. Without giving him time to hesitate, when he swatted like catching a fly with a pot lid, Jeongcheol’s limbs jumped. It wasn’t only Jeongcheol who was surprised. Xiao, who was watching from behind, also flinched her shoulders and blinked her big eyes at the sight of General mercilessly hitting his own boss’s cheek. The nickname General wasn’t given for nothing.
“Ah.”
Jeongcheol, who had been shaking his head several times, opened his eyes wide. He grabbed his throbbing cheek and stood up abruptly to look at General.
“Are you a bit more conscious now?”
General smiled happily seeing the awakened Jeongcheol.
“Did you wake me?”
“What?”
“I’m asking if you hit my cheek.”
“That’s not important right now. Boss. Please look who came.”
General showed his skill of completely changing the title to Boss. Leaving his fuming boss alone for a moment, he took out his phone and walked to the monitor set up on one side of the wall. Jeongcheol, who had been rubbing his swollen cheek, made eye contact with Xiao, who was staring at him and clicking her tongue as if he was pathetic. Even in this situation, he didn’t forget to wink at her.
Xiao looked at such Jeongcheol with an astounded face, then sharply turned her head so that her long hair braided into two strands flew. Then she returned to the sofa laid with leopard-print fur and sat down crossing her legs.
Jeongcheol was rubbing his chest clockwise. Looking around for water to calm his churning stomach, he asked General.
“Just tell me. Is it Seok-dae or Mal-dae? That bastard? I thought he ran away scared with the Action Captain title.”
“No. It’s not that guy.”
“Then, who is it?”
“That’s why you’ll know if you look.”
“No, just uh….”
Jeongcheol seemed like the alcohol was coming back up for a moment, so he closed his mouth. Feeling like he’d throw up everything inside if he didn’t drink something, he urgently gulped down the whiskey he’d drunk earlier straight.
“Why does this taste like this?”
Jeongcheol, who was drinking while holding the whole bottle, suddenly noticed a strange sign. When he belatedly checked the label, it was tattered from mold.
Jeongcheol showed the whiskey bottle to Xiao with a completely disgusted expression.
“Didn’t you pour me this?”
“Right. You ate it well without knowing it was rotten?”
“You fucking bitch!”
Jeongcheol, whose mood was completely ruined, threw the bottle toward the wall. The bottle that hit the wall made of solid rock shattered into pieces with a thud. The alcohol remaining inside splattered in all directions. These bastards don’t even know to be grateful when I bothered to lend them the place. Xiao bit her upper lip covered with red lipstick to hold back the rising irritation.
The guard who saw her clenched fist slightly leaned his body as if to say just give the signal anytime. Xiao, who clicked her tongue and calmed the guard for now, stared at the screen General was showing as if to bore a hole through it.
Jeongcheol staggered toward the sofa where Xiao was sitting. Looking at Xiao who couldn’t move at his angry appearance, he showed a fishy smile with a relieved face. He loosened his body and sat next to her as if collapsing, finishing his viewing preparations.
“It hasn’t even been an hour.”
When General touched the phone screen, the video on the screen played.
“Is there a place like that there?”
When Jeongcheol asked, Xiao answered while propping her chin and staring at the screen.
“It’s an emergency exit made in the old days. They said they drilled it in preparation for when traveling by boat because that passage is connected to the sea.”
“Oh, Xiaoling. Smart?”
“You’re the ignorant one. And don’t change my name and call me whatever you want.”
When he felt murderous intent from the big eyes glaring at him, Jeongcheol whistled while subtly lowering the arm he’d stretched over the sofa.
“Alright. Fuck. Would I joke if I wasn’t scared?”
“Why do we need jokes in business?”
“Ah. It’s cold, cold. Huh? She looks like Miss Hong Kong but her chest is completely empty like the Siberian plains….”
“Stop. That’s enough rude behavior toward the young lady.”
When Jeongcheol’s rudeness showed no sign of stopping, the guard protecting Xiao’s back intervened. A hand as big as a door suddenly intruded between the two people, blocking the conversation.
“Ah, what a surprise. Does someone think I’m joking for fun? Ah, I got it! Move it aside!”
Even after the guard’s hand was withdrawn, his sticky gaze watching Xiao remained. Jeongcheol stared persistently at the eyes lowered between his black bangs. Even after their gazes met and he didn’t avoid it, Xiao narrowed her eyes. Jeongcheol followed suit.
“Hmph.”
It was Xiao who turned her head first while snorting. When she stared at the screen with her characteristic expressionless face, Jeongcheol, who chuckled, finally stopped playing around and leaned his body against the sofa back. The time on the screen flowed rapidly, and starting from the point when the tightly closed wooden plank door was roughly torn away, it regained its original speed. A reddish light shone down and gray dust scattered, then soon a box presumed to be styrofoam rolled down.
“What’s that?”
When Jeongcheol asked, General shrugged while politely clasping both hands.
“I don’t know either.”
Soon after, long legs of a man wearing black pants dangled down and then jumped down below the passage that looked quite high.
“No way, how did that bastard……?”
It was a familiar face. Jeongcheol blinked rapidly, doubting his own eyes. Although the quality was a bit poor, the face that was glimpsed while jumping down was a familiar mug he’d been seeing for over ten years.
“It’s Kwonmyeonghoe’s twin.”
At Jeongcheol’s words, someone drew in a breath. It made sense. This meant that the hideout location had already been exposed even though they hadn’t even started yet.
