The desperate messages filling the screen. After checking even the last text that came in, the color drained completely from Dowon’s face. Strength entered the hand gripping his phone.
This was clearly a trap. Seong Yeohwi had finally walked with his own two feet into the snare Do Jingyu had dug.
“Director, I apologize for overstepping my bounds so suddenly. I know outside matters are important, but please don’t neglect your home and take care of it.”
“…….”
“He’s still very young, isn’t he? He gets lonely easily, and he’s pitiful…….”
“…….”
“Even without scolding and teaching him so harshly, he’ll quickly realize how scary the world is. How about embracing him a bit more warmly…….”
“……When did he leave?”
Dowon asked in a low voice. His voice was calm but his eyes blazed with murderous intent.
“It’s been about an hour.”
An hour.
It might already be too late. The worst-case scenario flashed through his mind. Dowon turned around roughly and instructed his secretary.
“Today’s meeting ends here. We’ll continue with the remaining agenda tomorrow.”
“Director! Where are you going?”
The surprised secretary followed. Without stopping his steps, Dowon commanded in a chilling voice.
“Call the entire security team. The coordinates are the abandoned factory in Paju.”
“What? An abandoned factory?”
“Call them. Right now.”
Ding. The elevator arrived. Without looking back, Dowon stepped inside.
***
“Let go! You son of a bitch bastards, I said let go!”
Yeohwi struggled like a beast, bleeding from his head. He kicked and threw punches at random toward the large men holding both his arms. Even while rolling on the muddy ground, he didn’t give up and screamed viciously. He had to resist somehow.
“Fuck, this crazy bastard really!”
One thug who got kicked in the shin cursed and kicked Yeohwi in the stomach.
“Heurk!”
Yeohwi curled up on the ground in breathtaking pain. But there was no time to groan. It was the moment Yeohwi got up again and tried to run away.
“Hey, fuck, grab that bastard! Tie him up and get him in the car!”
The skinhead shouted irritably.
The original plan was to knock Yeohwi unconscious and secretly move him to the workshop, then slowly educate him there. But even though he was struck on the head with a wooden club and bleeding profusely, Yeohwi resisted to the end. He was much more fierce and vicious than expected. He thrashed about like a wild animal that knew it would die if caught.
“Won’t get in! I’m not going! Aaaaah!”
Yeohwi held onto the car door and held out. Even with two thugs clinging to him, it was hard to pry him off.
Finally, the skinhead, whose patience had run out, strode over and struck down Yeohwi’s back with the steel pipe.
“Urk……!”
With a scream, Yeohwi collapsed to the ground.
Yeohwi, his face buried in the muddy ground, breathed roughly. He scratched at the ground with his hands and scrabbled, but had no strength left to get up.
“Ha, fucking bastard. Making me break a sweat after so long.”
The skinhead grabbed Yeohwi’s hair, lifted him up, and smashed him to the ground. Then he stomped down hard on Yeohwi’s white hand with his boot, crushing it.
“Aaah!”
“This won’t do. This bastard needs some grooming before we go. He’s too lively to even load into the car.”
The skinhead gestured to the subordinate standing behind him.
“Bring the tools.”
“What? Boss, here?”
The subordinate looked around.
“Will it be okay? First let’s move him to the workshop…….”
“Shut up. We’re just giving him a little taste, just a taste.”
The skinhead tapped Yeohwi’s cheek lightly.
“You have to break the spirit of fresh catch like this from the start. Let’s help him know his place and then take him. Bring it, the pliers.”
At those words, the subordinate pulled out rusty pliers from the toolbox and handed them over. The skinhead got on top of Yeohwi’s back and forcibly spread open the right hand he’d been stomping on.
“Now, young master. Watch carefully.”
He smiled while opening and closing the pliers, clack, clack.
“What happens to this finger.”
“N-no……. Don’t……!”
Yeohwi tried to pull his hand away in horror, but the thug bastards were restraining his limbs from all sides, so he couldn’t move.
The skinhead firmly gripped the tip of Yeohwi’s index fingernail with the pliers. Then after wiggling it back and forth for a moment while applying pressure, he twisted and pulled it out without hesitation.
“Aaaaah!”
A horrible scream echoed through the abandoned factory.
Red blood gushed from his fingertip and fell into the muddy ground. Yeohwi felt like his eyes would flip from the pain. Every muscle in his body convulsed. It was more horrible than he’d imagined. The excruciating pain of having a fingernail ripped out raw. It felt like his entire hand was being severed at the wrist.
“How is it.”
The skinhead waved the blood-stained pliers in front of his eyes.
“Are you feeling a bit more loyal now? Are you suddenly thinking you want to follow President Do’s words like a dog?”
“Heurk, huk…….”
“Wow, maybe because you’re a well-raised young master, even your fingers are pretty. What a shame to ruin them all.”
Without giving Yeohwi time to answer, he consecutively twisted and pulled out the middle fingernail.
“Kyaaaah! Uuuurk!”
Yeohwi howled like a beast. He couldn’t breathe from the pain. His head flashed white.
“Say it.”
The skinhead grabbed Yeohwi by the collar and shook him.
“Say you’ll do whatever President Do Jingyu tells you to! Say you’ll spy behind that bastard Dowon’s back!”
Yeohwi forcibly held his blurring focus and shook his head. He bit his molars so hard that blood flowed from his mouth, either because it had burst inside. His head was also soaked with bloody water.
“……Don’t want to.”
Yeohwi made a metallic sound while spitting out blood-mixed saliva.
“Dowon-ssi…… absolutely…… won’t hand over…….”
“Ha, this poisonous bastard.”
The skinhead’s expression twisted viciously.
“This really won’t work. He’s a guy who won’t understand with nice treatment.”
He picked up the pliers again. This time it was the thumb.
“Kid, you know the thumb hurts the most, right?”
Crack.
“Kyaaaaah……!”
Yeohwi’s body jumped up like a live fish and then went limp. He felt like he’d pass out from the pain, but the man kept grabbing and shaking him so he couldn’t even do that. His right hand, turned to rags, trembled.
“Oh my, there are still so many fingers left, what to do.”
“…….”
“How about we give the other hand a little taste too?”
The skinhead snatched Yeohwi’s left arm. Then his eyes caught the watch fastened on Yeohwi’s wrist. Though mud and blood had splattered on it, it was a white gold watch that still emitted a subtle and luxurious light.
“Wow, what’s this.”
The skinhead cackled.
“You’ve been wearing something this expensive on your wrist? I guess you meant to give our boys some pocket money.”
“……No.”
Then Yeohwi’s pupils wavered with fear for the first time. It was a more desperate look than when his fingernails were being pulled out.
“Th-that……. Don’t touch it…….”
“Why? Must be precious?”
The skinhead enjoyed Yeohwi’s reaction and grabbed the middle fingernail of the left hand wearing the watch with the pliers. Then he cruelly pulled it out as if it were nothing.
“Keurk!”
Yeohwi twisted his body while swallowing a groan. But he tried to protect the watch more than his aching fingers. He forcibly curled his immobile arm, trying to hide the watch against his chest.
“Oh ho. So that’s it.”
The bastard forcibly straightened Yeohwi’s forearm and undid the watch buckle. It seemed it wasn’t just because it was an expensive item that he was trying to protect the watch even while having his raw fingernails pulled out.
The watch came off Yeohwi’s wrist.
“No! Y-you, you bastard, give it back……! Heurk!”
Yeohwi struggled and reached out his hand. It was a couple’s watch matched with Dowon. On the surface it was an item for acting as newlyweds, but still, it was the first meaningful possession he’d had and the only mark connecting him to Dowon. Yeohwi waited for Dowon while looking at that watch every day. He had secretly kissed the watch band too.
The fingernails that would grow back anyway could all be pulled out, but not that.
“Perfect. This is perfect.”
The skinhead smiled nastily and waved the watch in front of his eyes.
“Don’t……. Please…….”
Yeohwi pleaded. Tears and bloody water mixed and flowed down his cheeks.
The skinhead enjoyed that desperate expression and casually tossed the watch onto the dirt ground. Then he picked up a hammer from the toolbox.
“Watch carefully.”
Crack!
The head of the steel hammer drove down onto the watch.
The sapphire glass shattered into pieces and the intricate movement was crushed. The beautiful blue dial instantly became a lump of scrap metal.
“…….”
The life disappeared from Yeohwi’s eyes. A despair greater than when he was beaten and had his fingernails pulled out covered him. He felt like he couldn’t endure anymore. Everything was over. Even struggling like this, there was nothing he’d protected.
The shattered watch fragments were like Yeohwi’s own heart.
Being dragged away like this and whatever treatment he’d suffer, it was just devastating.
Right at that moment.
CRASH!
A thunderous sound tore through his eardrums.
