The man tilted his chin with his arms crossed. Yoon Gyeom took out the frozen blueberries from the cart and compared them with Company A’s product. Just as the man said, only Company A’s product had the words “processed fruit and vegetable product” written on it.
“Thank you. But what brings you here……”
Yoon Gyeom asked as he tossed Company A’s frozen blueberries into the cart. This wasn’t a large supermarket in a major city, but a discount mart in a rural area. There was no way the man being here was a coincidental encounter.
Yoon Gyeom casually glanced around without making it obvious. Fortunately, it was morning so there weren’t many people. If something were to happen, it seemed like there would be enough time to evacuate people. While outwardly pretending to be calm, Yoon Gyeom prepared himself to attack the man if necessary.
“Put away that fucking killing intent.”
The man detected the subtle change and displayed his displeasure. Yoon Gyeom flinched and stepped back half a step. From what he’d seen last time, the man seemed to have an extremely bad temper, and there was nothing good to be gained by provoking him further here. Yoon Gyeom decided to follow his words for now and relaxed his body.
“……I apologize. That last encounter wasn’t exactly a pleasant memory.”
“I was more unpleasant than you.”
“Ah… yes.”
“And, fuck, I’m busy as hell, so how many hours are you going to spend grocery shopping?”
“Have you been waiting outside for a long time?”
The man didn’t want to say he’d waited a whole hour, so he kept his mouth firmly shut. The memo pad on top of the cart caught his eye. A shopping list was written out in full.
“Should I start buying from below the blueberries?”
“No, I need to buy starting from the Greek yogurt above that.”
“Take the meat out of the cart.”
“The meat… ?”
“Even if the color looks fine, the smell, weight, and fat content are all substandard. Ha, let me see the face of whatever bastard sold that crap…… What are you doing, aren’t you coming!”
The man walked while fuming, then turned around and yelled at Yoon Gyeom, who was still rooted in place. Yoon Gyeom hurriedly pulled the cart and followed close behind him.
As if he’d memorized all the ingredients written on the memo pad, the man tossed items into the cart without hesitation. He was blatantly choosing only expensive items, making Yoon Gyeom’s heart flutter with anxiety.
Just as Yoon Gyeom was about to say something, the man went inside the meat corner with pork and beef. Then, without giving any chance to stop him, he suddenly grabbed an employee by the collar. The employee’s heavy body was lifted up like a feather.
“Kkeuk, who are you……!”
“I guess the Food Sanitation Act looks like shit to you. Seeing how you’re deceiving customers by selling frozen meat as fresh meat.”
Thud. The man placed the heavy meat he was holding in his other hand onto the work table. The flustered employee’s eyes met Yoon Gyeom’s. The employee averted his gaze like someone who had committed a grave sin.
“The, the owner… the owner made me do it. He told me to mix in a little when selling to outsiders……!”
“A little? Does that look like a little mixed in to you? Looks like you were clearing out old frozen meat inventory, and it’s not even domestic, is it? Where’s it from. America? Australia?”
“Th, that’s…… they didn’t really notice even when we mixed it in, so we, we gradually increased it……! It wasn’t this bad before. Please believe me!”
“Bring the owner here.”
“If, if the owner finds out, I’ll be fired! I’ll replace it with good meat and compensate you! My wife just gave birth to twins recently. Please… Yoon Gyeom-nim, please……!”
The employee looked at Yoon Gyeom rather than the man and pleaded. He was trying to stretch his legs after seeing where to lie down. However, Yoon Gyeom’s face was extremely cold, unlike usual.
Yoon Gyeom thought there was no way his mother didn’t know she’d been receiving low-quality mixed meat all this time. She probably kept quiet because she was worried her well-known son would get caught up in gossip if he went to get a refund, expressing her opinion in roundabout ways like, “Gyeom-ah, isn’t there only one mart nearby? You must be busy with work. I’ll go next time we need groceries.” He felt self-loathing for not catching that signal.
“……I’m going to report this to the police.”
When Yoon Gyeom took out his phone, the employee squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.
“I, I’ll call the owner!”
The man released his grip on the collar. The employee hurriedly called the mart owner. The owner’s name saved in his phone was “Dad.” The employee, who belatedly saw the saved name, hurriedly tried to hide the phone screen, but it was already too late—both the man and Yoon Gyeom had seen it.
A moment later, the mart owner came running out and led them to the owner’s office. In the empty owner’s office, the father and son got on their knees. They’d do anything, so please just don’t report them.
Yoon Gyeom firmly stated that reporting was unavoidable, asking how many people must have been victimized so far.
“You said you’d do anything, right?”
Just then, the man who had been quietly observing the situation spoke up. Sitting on the luxurious leather sofa with his legs crossed, he had an even more lordly attitude than Yoon Gyeom, the actual victim.
“Yes, yes! Whatever you want, we’ll accommodate it…!”
“Switch your livestock supplier to Company B. And Company C’s truffle oil, Company D’s premium cheese, Company E’s handmade butter…… aren’t you writing this down?”
“Ju, just a moment.”
The owner’s son brought paper and lay flat on the floor. As the man rattled off high-end ingredients he’d never heard of in his life, the owner’s son wrote them down with a flustered face. Yoon Gyeom, watching this, narrowed his brow at the man’s strange behavior, but didn’t particularly call him out on it.
“Get it all within a week.”
“Yes, we’ll procure everything…!”
“And the compensation?”
“Oh my, of course we have to compensate you for the meat! And today we won’t charge you anything, so pick out whatever you want!”
“Fuck, only compensate for the meat? How do I know you didn’t mess with other food too? Are these bastards trying to scam me again right in front of me?”
“We, we’re sorry. We’ll compensate for everything you’ve purchased so far. But I swear to heaven we only did it with the meat……”
“And, fuck, you’re only not charging today? Who decided it’s only today?”
“What? So, you mean… you’ll take things for free for the rest of your life…? That’s unreasonable!”
“Unreasonable?”
The man took out his phone and showed them the recording screen. Having no way out, the owner nodded with tears in his eyes.
“For, for life…… we’ll give it to you for free……!”
“Now we’re finally communicating. Yoon Gyeom, how much have you spent at this mart so far?”
Yoon Gyeom looked up his mart payment history and showed it. It was a total of 6.5 million won. It was a large amount, but the father and son knew he was staying in this area temporarily for training camp. Once training ended he’d leave, so they figured they’d only lose about 10 million won total no matter how much he took, and felt relieved.
“Withdraw it, in cash.”
“Yes sir!”
At the man’s instruction, the owner’s son jumped up and ran stomping toward the ATM next to the mart. The owner, kneeling alone, groaned and adjusted his position as his legs went numb. The man looked at the owner sweating profusely and spoke.
“Nice necklace.”
“…….”
“Answer.”
“Pl, please let me off just this once. This is pure gold……!”
“Fuck, did your earhole get fat too? You can’t understand words. I just said it’s pretty. Just.”
“Whew… is that so….”
“Well, if you’re going to give it to me anyway, I won’t refuse.”
Son of a bitch… when gold prices have risen so much…! The owner tearfully removed the thick pure gold necklace. When he handed over the necklace with trembling hands, the man snatched it up quickly as if he’d been waiting and stuffed it into his pocket.
“Then, you’ll delete the recording…?”
“Depends on how you behave.”
The owner’s son returned and placed a black plastic bag containing 130 fifty-thousand won bills in front of the man. The man threw Yoon Gyeom’s shopping list memo at him as he was about to kneel down again.
“Refill the cart and bring it to the parking lot. You’re dead if you put in cheap stuff.”
“Yes, understood…!”
Completely unaware that his father had just been robbed of a pure gold necklace worth tens of millions of won, the owner’s son clutched the memo and scurried away.
Now all business was finished. The man picked up the black bag with the money and stood up. Then, without even glancing at the owner agonizing over the necklace, he passed by and left the owner’s office. Yoon Gyeom followed closely behind and whispered.
“Are you really not going to report them? They seem like habitual offenders.”
“Report them around the time training camp ends. If they have any sense, they’ll lay low until then.”
“Other people might be victimized in the meantime. And it’s suspicious beyond just the meat.”
“They only messed with the meat. If you don’t trust that, make surprise visits and monitor them.”
“Still, you should return the gold necklace. There are CCTVs everywhere, so if rumors spread it’ll be troublesome……”
Yoon Gyeom unconsciously looked up at the CCTV attached to the ceiling. A black energy he’d seen many times before was surrounding all the CCTVs. Toward Yoon Gyeom, who had lost his words, the man sneered.
“Return it?”
“……No. Thank you for your help.”
When Yoon Gyeom expressed his gratitude, Dohae’s face contorted.
Today, Dohae had made time in his busy schedule to come find Yoon Gyeom. He happened to arrive just as Yoon Gyeom was entering the mart, so he had to wait until he came out. He thought he’d come out after waiting a bit, but there was no sign of him for a whole hour. He had no choice but to go into the mart himself to find him.
Dohae watched Yoon Gyeom compare prices for a long time before finally choosing a cheap pumpkin and clicked his tongue. There was even meat in his cart that looked like it had been butchered several months ago. He tried to ignore it since it wasn’t his business, but when he saw him choosing the wrong frozen blueberries, his patience snapped and he intervened.
This guy?