#2
* * *
Manager Park’s proposal was this:
“There’s a place called Sovereign Casino in Macau. If you do exactly what you’re told for three years, we’ll forgive your debt.”
“A casino? Are you perhaps referring to a restaurant attached to the casino?”
“No, literally a casino. You’ll become casino staff.”
When he first heard that proposal, Kang Siwon thought it was absurd.
Suddenly telling him, a chef, to work at a casino. He didn’t have such skills, and his education level wasn’t high either. He’d surely be filtered out from the document screening stage.
However, even when he said so, Manager Park only snorted.
“Who said to submit a résumé fair and square? We’ll prepare your identity, so you just shut up and do as you’re told.”
“Are you telling me to disguise my identity and infiltrate?”
“That’s right.”
“…Then what about language? Sure, I can learn the work, but language isn’t something that can be resolved overnight.”
“You speak Chinese well, don’t you?”
He seemed to have done a background check. As he said, Kang Siwon was quite fluent in Chinese. Thanks to learning from the owner of the Chinese restaurant where he worked part-time in high school, who was an overseas Chinese. Afterward, he’d consistently studied Chinese while dreaming of becoming a Chinese cuisine chef.
“Even so, I’m a foreigner. If I mix words with people whose native language is Chinese, I’ll be exposed immediately.”
“That’s for you to figure out.”
“…”
“Kid, it’s 3 billion in three years. 3 billion! When given an opportunity like this, shouldn’t you be bowing your head to the ground in gratitude?”
That wasn’t wrong. Even if he sold his organs, he might or might not be able to earn 3 billion, but forgiving the debt after rolling around for three years was a truly drastic proposal. It was a proposal anyone would be tempted by, which made it all the more suspicious.
“May I ask just one thing?”
“What.”
“Why me?”
“What are you talking about?”
“There are plenty of people better than me, so why are you making such a proposal to me? I’m just an ordinary civilian.”
“An ordinary civilian?”
Manager Park retorted mockingly. He pulled out a cigarette pack from his shirt pocket, took one out, and put it in his mouth. A lackey standing behind him quickly jumped forward to light it.
“Is that what you’re curious about?”
“…Yes.”
“Well now…”
Manager Park, who had inhaled the cigarette, exhaled smoke.
“Since you’ll need to know anyway to do the job, I’ll tell you in advance. We need a guy who’s smart enough and also has a decent face. Plus, he needs to know how to play cards.”
Flick—Manager Park pointed at Kang Siwon with his lit cigarette. Ash fell from the brightly burning cigarette butt.
“A guy exactly like you.”
“…”
“You’re the kid who ran wild at gambling dens instead of your old man, aren’t you?”
Kang Siwon fell silent. What Manager Park was saying now was wrong but also had some truth to it. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say it was right but also had wrong parts.
Kang Siwon’s father had been deeply absorbed not only in overseas casinos and house gambling but also in online gambling games. Living with such a person from childhood, even if you didn’t want to know, you’d learn the rules of the games.
One day, just after turning twenty, Kang Siwon couldn’t stand watching his father throw a fit because he was about to lose all his game money, so he cautiously offered advice. Though skeptical, his father threatened to wait and see, then followed the advice. But unexpectedly, that round hit the jackpot.
His father, whose eyes had rolled back, sat Kang Siwon right in front of the computer and urged him to play the game in his place.
‘You inherited my blood and have a talent for gambling. We need to win more before your first streak disappears, hurry!’
How disgusting it was when he patted his shoulder while speaking like a caring father. However, Kang Siwon, who until then hadn’t escaped his father’s shadow, had no strength to refuse. He occasionally had to jump into online games in his father’s place.
Absurdly enough, Kang Siwon had quite a high win rate. Of course, there were times he lost, but there were also several times he won big points. That’s why on the day he was dragged to the container, Kang Siwon desperately demanded to use a laptop. Then he jumped into a game with all his assets on the line and managed to come up with the interest. Manager Park must have noticed not only his gambling skills but even his warped morality at that time.
“I understand now why you chose me. But if I get caught spying, what happens?”
“You’re fucked, obviously.”
“…”
“You said you’d ask just one thing, but you’re asking two. I answered, so now you have to answer too. Will you do it or not?”
Manager Park, who asked this, threw down his cigarette. The cigarette butt was crushed under his shoe.
Kang Siwon clenched his molars. He was dismayed at his own situation, being tempted by such a proposal. If it were up to his feelings, he wanted to throw everything away and irresponsibly flee in the night like his father.
But Kang Siwon couldn’t run away. Not this time either.
* * *
And so Kang Siwon boarded a plane to Macau.
Even though he was leaving Korean soil where he’d been born and raised, he felt no particular emotion. However, when he mixed among tourists and went through immigration, he felt a strange feeling. He too would appear to be an ordinary traveler on the outside, but the reality was completely different.
After completing entry procedures and leaving the airport, a black van was parked at the designated location. Kang Siwon confirmed the license plate, then got into the vehicle.
“Are you Kang Siwon?”
The man in the driver’s seat asked bluntly, skipping greetings entirely. Kang Siwon nodded deeply.
“What kind of rude bastard showed up.”
“…”
“Call me Ju Xiang. I’m your senior both in Baeksa Faction and at Sovereign, so conduct yourself accordingly. Got it?”
“Yes. I look forward to working with you.”
Senior, my ass. Kang Siwon swallowed his inward sneer.
Though he was moving according to their wishes for now, his position was like an outside mercenary. Kang Siwon didn’t think of himself as belonging to Baeksa Faction at all.
“This is your ID card.”
Ju Xiang held out a card. His face was embedded on it, but the name written next to it was different.
Xie Wei (謝伟).
As he silently stared at that name, Ju Xiang added an explanation.
“You were born in Macau and immigrated to Canada with your parents when you were around four years old—that’s your setting. Remember it well.”
“This person, that is, Xie Wei—is he a real person?”
“Hey.”
Ju Xiang cut him off and glared viciously through the rearview mirror.
“Do I have to tell you every little thing like that? Should I spoon-feed everything into your ears?”
“…I made a mistake.”
“You’ll work in the cage team. Survive there and you live, can’t survive and you’ll die on your own.”
Cage—a beast’s pen made of iron bars naturally came to mind. Kang Siwon shut his mouth heavily.
“Save the nitpicking questions for new employee training. Hand over your passport and phone.”
When he silently held out his passport and phone, Ju Xiang tossed something at him. When he caught it, it was another phone.
“Use this from now on. My number and Manager Park-nim’s number are saved in it, so when they contact you, answer right away. Got it?”
“Yes.”
As soon as the brief explanation ended, Ju Xiang started the engine. Soon the car left the airport and headed somewhere. The destination was probably Sovereign Casino. How many gamblers like his father would be swarming there?
“…”
Kang Siwon gripped the ID card tightly. The hard plastic edge dug painfully into his palm.
This was the first day as an employee of Sovereign Casino and a spy for Baeksa Faction, beginning with the name ‘Xie Wei.’
